"He helped to ease post-election tensions in Kenya, gave his all to find a political solution to the brutal war in Syria and set out a path for ensuring justice and rights for the Rohingya people of Myanmar," said Guterres.

Ghana's President Nana Dankwa Akufo-Addo said Annan was bold and never gave up on what he believed in.

"Despite the unjustified attacks on him, trying to fix him with responsibility for the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica when he was head of UN peace operations, he never lost his moral compass, as he showed when he stood up to the might of the United States of America when she was embarking on the ill-fated intervention in Iraq." History has vindicated Annan, said Akufo-Addo, saying that his "epic but unavailing effort to establish the supremacy of international law over the actions of even the world's greatest power won him the admiration of all right-thinking persons."

He said, Kofi Annan was an ardent believer in the capacity of Ghana and the continent of Africa to chart its own path of progress.