By Kebba Jeffang
A high level delegation of former United Nations experts have left the country for Accra, Ghana to attend the funeral of former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Atta Annan.
The delegation which comprises Fatoumatta Jallow-Tambajang, former Vice President of The Gambia and former United Nations Peace, Development and Gender Specialist Abdoulie Janneh, former Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and Crispin Grey-Johnson, former Ambassadors. The burial is slated for September 13th 2018, at the military cemetery in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.
The State has had to ask car renting companies all over the country to offer their services to the State Protocol Department in order to meet the vehicular strength and numbers required to transport the number of foreign dignitaries who will be attending the State Funeral of the late former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, on the 13th of September 2018.
The vehicles and their drivers have been assembled at the forecourt of the State Banquet Hall where State Protocol Officers are documenting the vehicles supplied and for subsequent allocation so that each driver would know which dignitary they will be offering their services to.
Hundreds of Ghanaians have thronged the Accra International Conference Centre, (AICC) Tuesday to pay their last respect to the late former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.
The body of late Ghanaian diplomat arrived Ghana from Switzerland, where he died in August, for a state burial and funeral service.
President Akufo Addo and other top senior government officials, were at the Kotoka International Airport to receive the remains of the late UN Chief. His remains has since been laid at the AICC, for public viewing for three days.
Mr. Annan was the 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations. He was appointed as the Secretary-General on 13 December 1996 by the Security Council, and later confirmed by the General Assembly, making him the first office holder to be elected from the UN staff itself. He was re-elected for a second term in 2001, and was succeeded as Secretary-General by Ban Ki-moon on 1 January 2007. Kofi Atta Annan was born on 8 April 1938 in Kumasi, in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He is the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.
Annan went on to study economics at Macalester College, international relations from the Graduate Institute Geneva and management at MIT. Annan joined the UN in 1962, working for the World Health Organization’s Geneva office. He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters including serving as the Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service has announced the temporary closure and diversion of two streets in Accra, ahead of the funeral and burial service of the late former United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.
