UN flag at half-mast for Kofi Annan

The flag at UN headquarters in New York is flying at half-mast on Saturday as the intergovernmental organisation marks the death of one of its former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. Officials from across the UN system have been paying tribute to the man who led the global body for a decade, starting in January 1997. He […]

The flag at UN headquarters in New York is flying at half-mast on Saturday as the intergovernmental organisation marks the death of one of its former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

Officials from across the UN system have been paying tribute to the man who led the global body for a decade, starting in January 1997.

He was Secretary-General during what has been described as one of the darkest days in the UN history: the Aug. 19, 2003 bombing of the UN premises in Baghdad, Iraq.

For Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Annan is simply “irreplaceable”.

“Kofi was humanity’s best example, the epitome, of human decency and grace.

“In a world now filled with leaders who are anything but that, our loss, the world’s loss becomes even more painful,” Zeid said in a statement.

Annan was the seventh of nine men appointed Secretary-General since the UN was established in 1945.

He was the first to emerge from the ranks of UN staff and the second to come from the African continent, after his predecessor, Egyptian diplomat Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali.

Before taking the reins of the UN, he held various senior level positions at the headquarters and in the field, and at one point he was Zeid’s immediate boss.
(NAN)