KOFI ANNAN LEAVES US. DIES AT 80

He was the first black African to become UN secretary-general and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
The Greatest of men from Africa, someone I never knew personally but always read about him even as a child while growing up. #Kofi ANAN our African Father leaves us. See tweet. 👇

Annan , a Ghanaian national, died in hospital in Bern , Switzerland , in the early hours of Saturday, two of his close associates said .
In Geneva , the Kofi Annan Foundation announced his peaceful death with “immense sadness” after a short illness , saying he was surrounded in his last days by his second wife Nane and children Ama, Kojo and Nina .
Annan served two terms as UN Secretary -General in New York from 1997 to 2006 and retired in Geneva and later lived in a Swiss village in the nearby countryside .

Kofi Atta Annan, a diplomat from the West African country of Ghana, was the first to emerge from the ranks of United Nations (UN) staff to serve as the Secretary-General of the UN. He served as the seventh UN Secretary-General from 1997 to 2006. The UN and Annan were jointly awarded the The Nobel Peace Prize 2001 "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world". While he was the Secretary-General, he prioritized the establishment of a comprehensive reforms programme aimed at revitalizing the UN. UN had traditionally been working in the areas of development and he worked for further strengthening this work.

A passionate advocate of human rights and selflessness, and a strong believer in the universal values of equality, tolerance and human dignity, Annan wanted to bring the UN closer to the people by reaching out to new partners, and thereby restore public confidence in the organization. He had a major part to play in the establishment of two new intergovernmental bodies: the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council in 2005. He also played a pivotal role in the creation of the Global Funds to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He strongly opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Iran's nuclear programme. After his retirement from the UN in 2006, he returned to Ghana where he was involved with a number of African as well as global organizations.

Mr. Annan was born in Kumasi, Ghana, on 8 April 1938. He studied at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and completed his undergraduate work in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A., in 1961.

From 1961 to 1962, he undertook graduate studies in economics at the Institut universitaire des hautes études internationales in Geneva. As a 1971-1972 Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Annan received a Master of Science degree in management.
Mr. Annan joined the United Nations system in 1962 as an administrative and budget officer with the World Health Organization in Geneva. Since then he has served with the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa; the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II) in Ismailia; the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva; and, at UN Headquarters in New York, as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator for the UN System (1987-1990) and Assistant Secretary-General for Programme Planning, Budget and Finance, and Controller (1990-1992). In 1990, following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Mr. Annan was asked by the Secretary-General, as a special assignment, to facilitate the repatriation of more than 900 international staff and the release of Western hostages in Iraq. He subsequently led the first United Nations team negotiating with Iraq on the sale of oil to fund purchases of humanitarian aid.

The Secretary-General is fluent in English, French and several African languages. He is married to Nane Annan, of Sweden, a lawyer who is now an artist. They have three children.


Kofi Annan's family has remained private with little information in the public domain.
Kofi Annan first married Titi Alakija, a Nigerian woman, in 1965. Together they had a daughter, Ama, and a son, Kojo. Annan separated with Titi in the late seventies but he remained an involved parent and lived with his son Kojo for a while after his separation with the mother.
After several years of living apart from his first wife, in 1981, Annan fell in love with Nane Lagergren, a lawyer at the U.N.
Nane was divorced and has a young daughter, Nina, from her first marriage.

"A wise man once said where courage left me, belief kept me going"
We will never forget you Great Kofi, rest on Sir!
HISTORY PREFERS LEGENDS TO MEN ✋ 💪

I am @kenny
I appreciate your time here
Steemon!

Ref: gettyimages.com
Wikipedia.org
kofiannanfoundation.org