Former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan has died aged 80.
“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.
Mr Annan served two terms as the world’s top diplomat from 1997 to 2006.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work in 2001.
The Ghanaian diplomat was the first black African to become a UN secretary-general.
He later served as the UN special envoy for Syria, leading efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
In 2008, Mr Annan, leading the Panel of Eminent African Personalities to Kenya, held closed-door talks that sealed a deal between the former president Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga after violence broke out over disputed presidential election results.
He was also a member of The Elders since 2007 when it was founded. He later became its chairman in 2013. The Elders is a group of global leaders working for human rights.
