- Title: Kofi Annan's family in Ghana in tears at news of his passing
- Date: 19th August 2018
- Summary: KUMASI, GHANA (AUGUST 19, 2018) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR FORMER U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL KOFI ANNAN'S FAMILY HOME WITH POSTER OF HIM HANGING ON THE WALL POSTER OF KOFI ANNAN OUTSIDE HIS FAMILY HOME
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2018 22:29
- Keywords: Annan family Ghana reactions to Kofi Annan's death Anna family home Kumasi Ghana family comments on Annan death
- Location: KUMASI, GHANA
- City: KUMASI, GHANA
- Country: Ghana
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0018TURLMV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: There were tears and fond memories at the Kumasi family home of former UN Secretary General and Nobel peace prize laureate Kofi Annan on Sunday (August 19) a day after they learned of his passing in Switzerland.
He was remembered globally as a man who was dignified and humane. At home he was an inspiration said the head of the family, 65-year old Nana Berewuo III, chief "Krotothene of Konongo, Annan's younger cousin.
Berewuo said he did not see him often and said the last occasion was at the funeral of the queen mother of the Ashanti Kingdom, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II, who died in 2016.
Annan died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday at the age of 80 of a short undisclosed illness.
After rising through the ranks of the United Nations, Annan served two terms as U.N. Secretary-General in New York from 1997-2006 and retired to live in a Swiss village in the Geneva countryside.
Also living in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti region, is former president of Ghana John Kufuor who took office four years after Annan was appointed as UN Secretary General. They met often, he said, both in Ghana and Switzerland and describes him as a man who continued to be concerned with the alleviation of hunger and poverty long after leaving the U.N.
He said he was proud of Annan whom he described as a reflective and diplomatic man, because he showed the world what Sub-Saharan Africans were capable of.
As head of U.N. peacekeeping operations, Annan was criticised for the world body's failure to halt the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s. As U.N. boss he was linked to peace efforts to reunite the divided island of Cyprus, submitting a reunification blueprint which was rejected in a referendum by Greek Cypriots in 2004. He staunchly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and later served as the first U.N. envoy at the start of Syria's war, but quit after world powers failed to fulfil their commitments. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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