Genial “rock star diplomat” who led the United Nations

When Kofi Annan was appointed the first black African secretary-general of the UN, in 1997, he was an almost universally popular choice, said The Times. “I had my staff here look into your background,” US senator Jesse Helms told him. “[They] couldn’t find anyone who didn’t like you.” Over his two terms, the genial, immaculately tailored Ghanaian became a much-loved figure on the world stage – a “rock star diplomat” whose accolades included the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. But while Annan undeniably had a huge impact on the UN – reforming its bloated bureaucracy and effectively saving it from bankruptcy – his tenure was also marked by controversy, in particular the UN’S failure to stop the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Annan acknowledged his failures, but noted that his hands had often been tied by a divided Security Council. “The letters SG do not stand for secretary-general,” he liked to say. “They stand for scapegoat.”

Kofi Atta Annan, who has died aged 80, was born into a wealthy family in Kumasi, in what was then the Gold Coast, in 1938. His grandfathers were tribal leaders; his father worked for Unilever. Attending a Methodist boarding school followed by university in Kumasi, he attended Macalester College in Minnesota on a scholarship, and began working for the UN in 1962, initially with the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Having spent a couple of decades working his way up the UN ladder, Annan “first came to public attention in 1990”, said The Daily Telegraph, “when he persuaded Saddam Hussein to allow the repatriation of 500,000 foreign workers trapped in Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion”. That led to his appointment as under-secretary-general of peacekeeping in 1993. In that role, he was heavily criticised for the UN’S failure to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia a year later. He later admitted he was haunted by regret over these tragedies, saying he “could, and should” have done more to prevent the Rwandan genocide, and that the “painful memory” of both atrocities shaped his approach to peacekeeping as secretary-general. When Annan succeeded Boutros Boutros-ghali in 1997 – becoming the first leader appointed from within the organisation – there was a “widespread feeling that the UN had lost its way”, said The Guardian. He made his mark by slashing 1,000 of its 6,000-strong workforce in New York, establishing a cabinet-style system of governance and persuading the US to pay off its massive backlog of unpaid contributions. He later established the “Kofi doctrine”, which held that “national sovereignty could no longer be used as a shield against UN intervention”. In 1998, he flew to Baghdad for talks with Hussein and persuaded him to allow weapons inspectors into his palaces. However, Hussein went back on his word, and questions were raised about Annan’s decision to shake hands, and smoke cigars, with the dictator.

Annan was “unanimously re-elected for a second term” in 2001, said BBC News online. “But trouble was just around the corner.” He denounced the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq as illegal, and described the war, and his failure to prevent it, as his “darkest moment”. The divide between him and Washington deepened in 2004, when it emerged that Hussein had skimmed billions from a UN programme that allowed his sanctions-hit regime to trade oil for humanitarian aid. Annan’s son was loosely implicated in the scandal, but was later exonerated. There were then calls for Annan’s resignation – and though he resisted (“Hell no,” he said), he stepped down 18 months later. But he remained active in diplomacy (he chaired The Elders, a group of former leaders set up by Nelson Mandela) and a fierce advocate for his former employer. “The UN can be improved; it is not perfect,” he said. “But if it didn’t exist you would have to create it.”