Former United Nations Secretary General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan has died. Hurriyet reports.
“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 on Aug. 18.
Annan, of Ghanaian nationality, died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Aug. 18, two close associates of Annan told Reuters.
“Kofi Annan was a guiding force for good,” United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “In many ways, Kofi Annan was the United Nations. He rose through the ranks to lead the organisation into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination,” he added.
Annan spent virtually his entire career as an administrator in the U.N. He served two terms as secretary-general from Jan. 1, 1997 to Dec. 31, 2006, capped nearly mid-way when he and the U.N. were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.
During his tenure, Annan presided over some of the worst failures and scandals at the world body, one of its most turbulent periods since its founding in 1945.
Annan was also known with a landmark U.N. plan named after him.
The Annan Plan, which aimed to resolve the Cyprus dispute, failed after referendums held on both sides of the island in 2004, when the proposal was supported by 65% of Turkish Cypriots, but only 24% of Greek Cypriots.
