Former UN Chief Kofi Annan passes away

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01:29

Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, has died at the age of 80 after a short illness, Annan family and Kofi Annan Foundation announced on Saturday.

According to two of his close associates, Annan passed away in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday.

"He passed away peacefully," the foundation said.

A screenshot was taken from the Kofi Annan Foundation's Twitter account

In a statement announcing his death, the foundation described him as a "global statesman and deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful world".

Voicing deep sorrow at the news, UN chief Antonio Guterres called Annan "a guiding force for good".

"In many ways, Kofi Annan was the United Nations. He rose through the ranks to lead the organization into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination," he added.

Annan was the seventh secretary-general of the UN, serving from 1997 to 2006.

Son of Ghana

Annan was born into a prominent family in 1938 in Kumasi, the second biggest city in Ghana, which was still under British rule.

Then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (L) speaks at the White House after meeting then US President Bill Clinton at White House, January 23, 1997. /VCG Photo

Then, two days before he turned 19, the country finally won its independence, becoming Ghana.

The impact on Annan's later life cannot be underestimated.

"I walked away as a young man convinced that change is possible, even radical revolutionary change," Annan told a group in Canada in 2012.

After studying at universities firstly in Ghana then in the US, he got his first job with the UN.

A smooth negotiator

Annan's reputation as a mediator was burnished by his success in halting a spiraling conflict in Kenya in 2007, when rival claims to the presidency caused ethnic massacres in which more than 1,200 died.

He put the rivals in a room and told them: "There is only one Kenya".

Annan helped persuade one of them to accept the post of prime minister in a joint government. The violence ended.

Then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (L) and then South Korean Foreign Minister and President of the General Assembly Han Seung Soo show their medals and certificate during the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2001. /VCG Photo

But his record was less successful during the earlier career.

The greatest reproach was that Annan failed to act on a telegram from the UN peacekeeper commander, General Romeo Dallaire, urging a move against arms caches being built up by Hutu extremists as they prepared mass murder.

Rock bottom

His worst moments, Annan said, included not being able to stop the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur, the oil-for-food debacle and the Iraq war, after which he lost his voice for months.

The oil-for-food scandal broke in early 2004 when it emerged that Saddam Hussein had cheated the 64 billion US dollars program designed to relieve the pain of UN sanctions on the Iraqi people. The sanctions were imposed after Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait.

Then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (C) receives a sash as he is conferred the Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Georgetown University Provost James O'Donnell (L) and University President John DeGioia (R) in the US, October 31, 2006. /VCG Photo

While few UN officials were accused of enriching themselves, the world body was blamed for lax management and not blowing the whistle on Saddam's tactics. Although Annan was cleared of wrongdoing, his son Kojo was found to have used UN contacts to his improper advantage.

Also, Annan stood at the helm when he was unable to bring peace to Syria and bring to rest the failures of diplomacy in Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, Cyprus, Somalia, and Iraq, which are likely to drown out the plaudits for his softly spoken mediation and efforts to eradicate poverty and AIDS that won him the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.

'One of the world's giants'

If we put his merits and demerits aside for a moment, Annan did work "unceasingly to improve the lives of millions of people around the world," deputy chair of the group Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former Norwegian prime minister and former head of the World Health Organization, said in the statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (R) as former US President Jimmy Carter (C) looks on during a meeting in Moscow, April 29, 2015. /VCG Photo

His warmth should never be mistaken for weakness, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, another former Norwegian prime minister, said in a statement, adding that Annan showed that one can be a great humanitarian and a strong leader at the same time.

"The UN and the world have lost one of their giants," he said.

The UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said he was grief-stricken.

"Annan was humanity's best example, the epitome, of human decency and grace. In a world now filled with leaders who are anything but that, our loss, the world's loss becomes even more painful."

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters