Martti Ahtisaari withdraws from all public commitments due to serious illness

Finnish President Saul Niinsto's office said on Thursday that 84-year-old, who led the Nordic state from 1994 to 2000, “is receiving support for daily life at home and occasionally undergo treatment periods at a care institution because of the advanced state of disease”.

With the teachers' early primary school profession, and later diplomat Ahtisaari worked for decades as a peace mediator for the Finnish government and the United Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his work in resolving international conflicts.

Among other conflicts, Ahtisaari helped achieve peace agreements as Serbia's withdrawal from Kosovo, Namibia's bid for independence and autonomy for the special Aceh district in Indonesia.

After completing his period at the helm of the Finnish state in 2000, Ahtisaari established the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative aimed at preventing and resolving violent conflicts through dialogue and informal mediation. This initiative is what Ahtisaari's disease reported.

He resigned from the position of chairman of this nongovernmental organization at the end of 2017 and has since been retired.

Ahtisaari was the UN special envoy for Kosovo, tasked with organising negotiations on the Kosovo status process, aimed at resolving the long-standing dispute in Kosovo, which later declared its independence in 2008.