Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General, dead at age 80

Kofi Annan, the first black African to lead the United Nations, has died at age 80.

He served as Secretary-General at a time when worries about the Cold War were replaced by threats of global terrorism, and his efforts to combat those threats and secure a more peaceful world brought him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Annan, who was born in Ghana in 1938, served as the seventh UN Secretary-General, from 1997 to 2006, and was the first to rise from within the ranks of the United Nations staff.

He had also been a member, since 2007, of The Elders, a humanitarian group of a dozen leaders and activists of worldwide stature formed by Nelson Mandela.

In 2013, Annan became its chairman.

Kenya will remember him for brokering a peace deal between retired President Mwai Kibaki and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga that ended the post-election turmoil in 2008.