Kofi Annan: All you need to know about former UN Secretary General

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Kofi Annan: All you need to know about former UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan: All you need to know about former UN Secretary General

United Nations : Kofi Atta Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, passed away on August 18 (2018) at an age of 80 years. He served as seventh UN General Secretary from January 1997 to December 2006.

Here is all you should know about the great leader:

Born in Comassie (now Kumasi), Gold Coast, Annan went on to study economics at Macalester College, international relations from the Graduate Institute Geneva and management at MIT.

He joined the United Nation in 1962, working for the World Health Organization's Geneva office. With his dedication for work, Annan was appointed as the Secretary-General on 13 December 1996 by the Security Council, and later confirmed by the General Assembly, making him the first office holder to be elected from the UN staff itself.

During his work tenure, Annan brought policies to reform the UN bureaucracy; worked to combat HIV, especially in Africa; and launched the UN Global Compact. He resigned from UN in 2007 and went on to start Kofi Annan Foundation to work on international development.

In September 2016, he was appointed to lead a UN commission to investigate the Rohingaya crisis.

In August 2018, Annan died in Switzerland after a short illness. António Guterres, the current UN Secretary-General, said that Kofi Annan was a champion for peace and a guiding force for good.

Nobel Peace Prize

In 2001, its centennial year, the Nobel Committee decided that the Peace Prize was to be divided between the UN and Annan. He was awarded the Peace Prize for having revitalized the UN and for having given priority to human rights. The Nobel Committee also recognized his commitment to the struggle to containing the spread of HIV in Africa and his declared opposition to international terrorism.