Three fallen Rwandan peacekeepers will posthumously receive the Dag Hammarskjold medal, tomorrow, as the United Nations observe the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers at its headquarters in New York, The New Times reports.
117 military, police and civilian personnel who lost their lives while serving in peacekeeping operations during 2016 will be awarded by Secretary- General Antonio Guterres, a UN statement said.
Three fallen peacekeepers from Rwanda are among the 117 to be awarded.
They include, Pvt Alex Katurebe, who served with UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic; Corp Jean Saver Benimana, and Serg Innocent Nsabimana who were deployed with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, the report said.
Peacekeepers Day offers allows us to pay tribute to the Blue Helmets’ invaluable contribution to the work of the Organization and to honour more than 3,500 peacekeepers who have lost their lives serving under the UN flag since 1948
“Every day, peacekeepers help bring peace and stability to war-torn societies around the world. On the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, we pay tribute to the more than 3,500 peacekeepers who have given their lives in the service of peace since 1948,” Guterres is quoted as saying in the statement
While the official International Day of United Nations Peacekeeper’s Day is on 29 May, UN Headquarters in New York will celebrate on 24 May.
More than 113,000 military, police and civilian personnel have been deployed in 16 peacekeeping operations on four continents.
Rwanda currently deploys more than 6,100 uniformed personnel to the UN missions in the Central African Republic, Haiti, Sudan and South Sudan.
The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal is a posthumous award given by the United Nations (UN) to military personnel, police, or civilians who lose their lives while serving in a United Nations peacekeeping operation. The medal is named after Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, who died in a plane crash in what is now Zambia in September 1961.
