Kofi Annan passes away in Switzerland

Ghana’s greatest diplomat of the modern day has sadly passed. Kofi Annan is said to have passed on during the early hours of Saturday August 18.

He died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland with his wife, Nane, and three children Ama, Kojo and Nina, by his side. He retired to Geneva and later lived in a Swiss village. Kofi Annan scaled heights that only few can dream of and even less can achieve it. He attended Mfantsipim and was a twin. Unfortunately his twin sister passed before he could assume the greatest office of his life.

He joined the UN system in 1962 as an administrative officer with the World Health Organization in Geneva. Annan later served with the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, the UN Emergency Force in Ismailia, the UN high commissioner for refugees in Geneva and in several senior posts at its headquarters in New York.

Before becoming secretary general, he was under-secretary general for peacekeeping and also served as special representative of the secretary general to the former Yugoslavia between 1995 and 1996. He’d go on to the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.

Whiles football may have put Ghana on the map on a global scale, Kofi Annan was single-handedly flying our flag in the upper echelons of diplomacy. He’s served the world a great deal, he’s made Ghana proud. It is said he went peacefully, and that’s what he deserved. A peaceful death for a peaceful man.

Paapa rest in peace.

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… pic.twitter.com/42nGOxmcPZ

— Kofi Annan (@KofiAnnan) August 18, 2018