10 things you didn't know about Kofi Annan

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has passed away aged 80.

Here are ten (10) things you didn't know about him.

1. Kofi A. Annan was the 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations.

2. Kofi Annan joined the UN system in 1962 as an administrative and budget officer with the World Health Organization in Geneva.

3. He's the founder and chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation.

4. In 2001, he and the United Nations were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Kofi Annan was praised for being “pre-eminent in bringing new life to the organization.” (Norwegian Nobel Committee, October 2001)

5. He was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Envoy for Syria, mandated to seek a resolution to the conflict there, from February to August 2012.

6. Mr. Annan is the founding Chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which works for a food secure and prosperous Africa by promoting rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers.

7. He chairs the African Progress Panel, which advocates at the highest level for equitable and sustainable development in Africa.

8. He's the author of Interventions: A Life in War and Peace was published in 2012.

9. Kofi Annan joined the UN system in 1962 as an administrative and budget officer with the World Health Organization in Geneva.

10. Kofi Annan was born in Kumasi, Ghana, on 8 April 1938. He is married to Nane and between them they have three children.