Entebbe, UGANDA (Aug. 23, 2018) Chief Regional Service Centre Entebbe, Mr. Paulin Djomo, and senior staff members joined the rest of the world to pay special tribute to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who passed away last Saturday 18 August 2018 in Switzerland, after a short illness. Mr. Annan, who served as the UN's seventh Secretary-General, was 80 years of age.

Born in Kumasi, in the then British Gold Coast (Ghana), Annan studied economics at Macalester College, international relations at the Graduate Institute Geneva and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.   

The Ghanaian diplomat joined the UN in 1962 through the World Health Organization and worked his way up to the top echelons of the Organization. Mr. Annan served as U.N. Secretary-General from 1996 to December 2006, and he had earlier served in different capacities within the same organization. Mr. Annan was the second African to head the UN after Egyptian Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was in charge from January 1992 to December 1996.

Mr. Annan’s tenure as UN Secretary-General coincided with the Iraq War and the HIV/Aids pandemic.  Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Kofi Annan described his greatest achievement as the Millennium Development Goals which – for the first time – set global targets on issues such as poverty and child mortality.

During the ceremony in the RSCE, a minute of silence was observed and Mr. Djomo shared fond memories and highlights from Annan’s extraordinary career, prior to signing a book of condolences.

The RSCE has opened a book of condolences in Building 3, First Floor for former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and will be accepting messages of condolences from staff members / Uniformed Personnel from the RSCE, UNESB and other Client Missions on the base, as well as other guests from the Regional Training and Conference Centre who wish to sign the condolences book.  The condolences book will then be forwarded to UNHQ.

At the end of the ceremony, Mr. Djomo announced that one of the conference rooms located at the Regional Training Conference Centre would be renamed in Mr. Annan’s honor.