Saturday, August 18, 2018

Former UN Secretary General & Nobel Peace Prize winner Koffi Annan dies at 80

Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary General and Nobel Peace Laureate, has died. He was 80. A statement posted on his Twitter account said, Kofi Annan died after a short illness. "It is with immense sadness that the Annan family and the Kofi Annan Foundation announce that Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate, passed away peacefully on Saturday 18th August after a short illness," the foundation said in a statement.

News agency Reuters says Kofi Annan died at a hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday.

Kofi Annan was the first black African to take up the role of the world's top diplomat - United Nations Secretary General - serving two terms from 1997 to 2006. He later served as the UN special envoy for Syria, leading efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

He, along with the United Nations, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world".

[SOURCE: NDTV]

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