The United Nations will honor two fallen Ghanaian peacekeepers during the observation of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers in New York on May 24, the UN Information Center said in a release on Tuesday.
They are Lance Corporal Emmanuel Sakyi, who served with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), and Staff Sergeant Boniface Atanyik, who lost his life while serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
They are among 117 military, police and civilian personnel who lost their lives while serving in peacekeeping operations during 2016 and will receive the Dag Hammarskjold medal during the ceremony at the UN Headquarters to be presided over by Secretary-General Anthonio Guterres.
In a video message to mark the Day, the Secretary-General said: “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.”
Today, more than 96,000 uniformed personnel from 124 troop-and-police-contributing countries serve under the blue flag, alongside more than 15,000 international and national civilian staff and nearly 1,600 United Nations Volunteers.
Ghana is the 10th largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping.
It currently deploys more than 2,700 military and police personnel to UN peace operations in the Central African Republic, DR Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, South Sudan, Sudan and the Western Sahara.
The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers was established by the UN General Assembly in 2002 to pay tribute to all men and women serving in peacekeeping, and to honor the memory of those who have lost their lives in the cause of peace.
Ghana will observe the Day with a number of activities starting on Wednesday with the flag-raising and wreath-laying ceremony taking place on May 29 in Accra. Enditem
Source: Xinhua/NewsGhana.com.gh
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