FROM his native Africa to the United States, tributes poured in from top leaders around the world Sunday after UN chief, Nobel peace laureate, and “diplomatic rock star” Kofi Annan died at the age of 80.
The Ghanaian national was a career diplomat who projected quiet charisma and was widely credited for raising the world body’s profile in global politics during his two terms as head of the UN from 1997 to 2006.
The first secretary general from sub-Saharan Africa, Annan led the United Nations through the divisive years of the Iraq war and was later accused of corruption in the oil-for-food scandal, one of the most trying times of his tenure.
Annan “astutely guided the United Nations organisation into the 21st century defining an ambitious agenda that had made the UN truly indispensable to peace, prosperity and human dignity around the world,” Annan’s successor as UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said in a statement.