Kofi Atta Annan

Secretary General of the United Nations

• Born: April 8, 1938
• Place of Birth: Kumasi, Gold Coast (now Ghana)
• Died: August 18, 2018
• Place of Death: Bern, Switzerland

Except for a two-year stint at Ghana's Ministry of Tourism, Kofi Atta Annan spent his entire career at the United Nations (UN), most notably as secretary general from 1997 to 2006. During this time, Annan earned recognition for his work on HIV/AIDS and for his efforts on behalf of Africa. Relations between the United Nations and the United States improved until the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Annan described as "illegal." Although he was eventually cleared of direct involvement, Annan was criticized for his lack of oversight of the oil-for-food program in Iraq, which was marred by a corruption scandal. Nevertheless, for his work to revitalize the United Nations, Annan was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

Annan was succeeded as secretary general by Ban Ki-moon in December 2006. After his UN leadership, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation, an international development organization. Annan also served as a mediator for talks to resolve the Kenyan election crisis in 2008, as a special representative for the UN and Arab League effort to resolve the Syrian Civil War in 2012, and as head of a commission investigating the Rohingya crisis in 2016.

Background

Kofi Annan was born into a family of tribal chiefs who were among Ghana's elite. As a youth, he attended Mfantsipim, an elite boarding school. He graduated in 1957, the same year that Ghana gained independence from Great Britain. He began his college education at the Kusami College of Science and Technology, later Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana. Annan received a grant from the Ford Foundation, which allowed him to finish his degree in the United States at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He graduated from Macalester with a degree in economics in 1961. He then did a year of postgraduate study in international relations at the Institut de hautes études internationales in Geneva, Switzerland.

United Nations

Annan began his career at the United Nations in 1962. His first position was as a budget officer for the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency, in Geneva. After a two-year stint as Ghana's minister of tourism, Annan returned to the United Nations, where he would spend the rest of his career. From 1987 to 1990, he served as assistant secretary general for human-resources management; from 1990 to 1992, he was assistant secretary general for budget and finance. In 1990 he was involved in negotiations for the release of UN staff and other Westerners held hostage by Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait.

In March 1992, Annan became assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, a position he held until December 1996. In this capacity, he served as a UN special representative to Yugoslavia from November 1995 to March 1996, where he supervised the transfer of peacekeeping duties from UN to NATO forces. However, the United Nations did not intervene effectively to stop the atrocities that happened in Bosnia and in Rwanda during this period.

On Jan. 1, 1997, Annan succeeded Boutros Boutros-Ghali as secretary general of the United Nations. He was the first person of sub-Saharan African descent to hold the position, as well as the first to rise through the ranks of UN staff to become secretary general. Annan faced significant challenges, including the near-bankruptcy of the United Nations and somewhat strained relations between the United Nations and the United States.

One of Annan's goals was to reform and streamline the United Nations. He eliminated almost one-sixth of the positions at the UN headquarters in New York City in an effort to bring the organization's budget under control and make its bureaucracy more efficient. For his efforts to revitalize the United Nations, Annan was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. Annan also earned recognition for his efforts on behalf of African countries and for his emphasis on the importance of UN actions on issues such as HIV/AIDS, human rights, and international terrorism.

During Annan's tenure, relations between the United Nations and the United States, which had been strained, began to improve. However, after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, relations deteriorated again. Annan had urged the United States to work through UN institutions and to support UN-led actions against Iraq. When the United States decided to act unilaterally in Iraq, outside the auspices of the United Nations, Annan criticized the invasion, calling it illegal.

However, Annan himself came under fire for his failure to adequately oversee the oil-for-food program in Iraq, in which Iraq (which was under economic sanctions) was allowed to sell oil in exchange for food and medicines. Critics alleged that Iraq's then leader, Saddam Hussein, made illegal profits off the program. Annan was cleared of any direct involvement, but his son Kojo and other UN staff members were implicated in the scandal.

After serving two terms as secretary general, Annan was succeeded by Ban Ki-moon in December 2006.

After the UN

In January 2008, Annan was named the new mediator for the Kenyan election crisis. Incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga both claimed victory in presidential elections held on December 27, 2007. Violence in the wake of the election claimed more than one thousand lives, and hundreds of thousands of Kenyans were displaced. Ghanaian President John Kufuor, who was also the head of the African Union, had been acting as an intermediary between the two sides but had failed to get the two sides to even meet. Neither rival indicated willingness to compromise on even the smallest point despite growing international pressure, making the task especially daunting for Annan.

After delaying his trip due to illness, Kofi Annan arrived in Kenya on January 22, 2008, to mediate talks between Kibaki and Odinga. Negotiations were difficult, but on February 1, 2008, Annan announced that representatives of Kibaki and Odinga had agreed on a four-point framework for talks. Finally, on February 28, Kibaki and Odinga officially agreed to form a coalition government.

In February 2012, as the Syrian Civil War neared the end of its first year, Annan was made the UN–Arab League envoy to Syria, charged with developing a roadmap for peace. After several months, during which he developed a six-point plan for peace, Annan resigned in August 2012, citing obstinance on both sides of the conflict as well as tensions within the UN Security Council and the international community.

In 2016, Annan was appointed as head of a commission tasked with mediating a growing conflict involving the Rohingya people, a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar (Burma) that has long been persecuted and discriminated against. He met with Myanmar government officials in an effort to open talks between Rohingya leaders and members of the Buddhist majority in Myanmar's Rakhine state. Despite vowing to remain impartial, Annan faced hostility during his mission and had limited success. He remained involved in the Rohingya crisis into the last months of his life.

Annan was hospitalized in Bern, Switzerland, for an illness in 2018, and died on August 18 of that year at the age of eighty. He was survived by his second wife, Nane, whom he married in 1984, and stepdaughter, Nina, as well as two children from his first marriage, Ama and Kojo. Upon his death, Annan was celebrated by many around the world for his long career in service to the global community.

Bibliography

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Black, Ian. "Kofi Annan Resigns as Syria Envoy." Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2 Aug. 2012. Web. 19 Jan. 2015.

Cowell, Alan. "Kofi Annan, Who Redefined the UN, Dies at 80." The New York Times, 18 Aug. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/obituaries/kofi-annan-dead.html. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024

Crossette, Barbara. "Kofi Annan: Visionary and Victim." America 15 Jan. 2007: 10–14. Print.

Gourevitch, Philip. "Power Plays." The New Yorker 13 Dec. 2004: 35–36. Print.

Pick, Hella. "Kofi Annan Obituary." The Guardian, 19 Aug. 2018, www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/19/kofi-annan-obituary. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

Williams, Abiodun. Kofi Annan and Global Leadership at the United Nations. Oxford UP, 2024.

Williams, Ian. "Annan's Principled Pragmatism." Nation 8 Jan. 2007: 20–22. Print.