GENEVA, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Swiss president Alain Berset on Saturday mourned the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, saying that International Geneva had lost one of its most ardent advocates.
The former United Nations Secretary General died in a hospital in Switzerland in the early hours of Saturday morning.
"Today, International Geneva has lost one of its most ardent advocates," Alain Berset said in a statement.
He expressed his condolences to Kofi Annan's family and called the former UN chief a visionary and a great friend of Switzerland.
Swiss Federal Council on Saturday also issued a statement saying that Kofi Annan had always been an important partner and committed supporter of international Geneva.
"Kofi Annan was not only professionally but also personally associated with Geneva and Switzerland. The Federal Council expresses its deepest condolences to the relatives," the statement said.
Kofi Annan had strong ties to Switzerland, in particular Geneva, and he once called Geneva his "second home".
Annan studied at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies from 1961-1962 and in Geneva he began his UN career at the World Health Organization. It was also where he met his wife, Nane, a Swedish lawyer.
In 2007, Annan established the Kofi Annan Foundation in Geneva, an independent, not-for-profit organization that works to promote better global governance and strengthen the capacities of people and countries to achieve a fairer, more peaceful world.
Born in Kumasi, Ghana, on April 8 of 1938, Annan was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, served from 1997 to 2006 and was the first to emerge from the ranks of United Nations staff.
From 2006 after the end of his second term as the UN chief, he lived in Geneva, continued to work in the cause of peace through his chairmanship of the Kofi Annan Foundation and as chair of The Elders, the group founded by Nelson Mandela.
