File photo taken on Dec. 19, 2006 shows then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan smiling during his final press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Multiple Ghanaian media sources have confirmed that former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan died at a hospital in Switzerland on Saturday. He was 80 years old. (Xinhua/Zhao Peng)
Former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate Kofi Annan passed away at the age of 80 on Saturday, the Geneva-based Kofi Annan Foundation announced.
"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 issued Saturday.
A diplomat source said that Annan died in a Swiss hospital, and his wife Nane and their children Ama, Kojo and Nina were by his side during his last days.
Born on April 9 of 1938 in Ghana, Kofi Annan served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. He and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.
He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.
