Kofi Annan, a charismatic international diplomat and the first black African to become United Nations secretary-general, died Saturday at age 80.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s death in Geneva came after a short illness, his foundation said.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, praised his devotion “to making the world a more peaceful place.”
“He worked tirelessly to unite us and never stopped fighting for the dignity of every person,” she tweeted.
The diplomat born in Ghana spent almost all of his career at the UN, starting at the World Health Organization in 1962.
His most prominent role before taking leadership of the international body was as head of peacekeeping operations in 1993, a short time before 18 US servicemen were killed in Somalia in the “Black Hawk Down” incident.
Observers said that may have made him slow to intervene in subsequent crises, including the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Annan apologized for decisions about the massacres.
His first of two terms helming the UN began in 1997. He is credited with revitalizing UN institutions and crafting what he called a new “norm of humanitarian intervention.” His efforts helped him and the UN to a shared Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, “for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world.”
Yet he also presided over significant failures, including the 2004 “oil-for-food” scandal in which a lucrative contract went to a company where his son, Kojo Annan, worked. A commission concluded that the secretary-general had not influenced the awarding of the contract, but did not aggressively investigate once questions were raised, either.
After the end of his tenure, Kofi Annan continued to work throughout the world promoting peace. In 2008, he headed a commission that persuaded rival factions in Kenya to reconcile after more than 1,000 people were killed amid disputed elections.
In 2012, he was appointed to broker a settlement in the worsening Syrian civil war. He resigned in frustration months later, citing the intransigence of both sides. More recently, he worked in Myanmar, trying to stop the devastation of the Rohingya minority.
“Long after he had broken barriers, Kofi never stopped his pursuit of a better world,” former President Barack Obama said in a statement.
Former President George W. Bush, whom Annan criticized for the Iraq War, called the diplomat “a gentle man and a tireless leader of the United Nations,” adding, “His voice of experience will be missed around the world.”