Two-term United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has died at the age of 80.

The Kofi Annan Foundation says he passed away after a short, unspecified illness in a hospital in Bern, Switzerland.

For most of his working life Annan, originally from Ghana, was employed by the United Nations, and became its first black African Secretary General in 1997, serving two terms until 2006.

In 2001Annan and the UN were jointly awarded the Noel Peace Prize for his efforts to revitalize the UN and for “having given priority to human rights.”