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| Dag Hammarskjöld medal |
United Nation’s
(UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon yesterday in New York gave posthumous awards
of Dag Hammarskjöld medal to 126 peacemakers and from 38 countries including
four Nigerians, who died in 2014 while serving under the UN flag.
The Nigerians lost their lives while serving in
Liberia and Senegal.
They are: Lance Corporals Silas Danyawu and John
Julius from the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), Corporal Adama Ike and Sgt.
Rabiatu Musa who both served with the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
They were awarded the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal.
The honour was part of the activities to celebrate the
‘International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers’ observed every year on May
29.
2015 is marking the seventh successive year in which
the Organization will honour more than 100 ‘blue helmets’, as they are referred
to.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) described the
medal as egg-shaped and made of clear lead free glass, engraved
with the name and date of death of the recipient, the UN logo, and the
inscription “The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal.”
The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal is given posthumously by
the UN to military personnel, police, or civilians, who lose their lives while
serving in a UN peacekeeping operation.
It is named after Hammarskjöld, the second
Secretary-General of the UN, who died in a plane crash in what is now Zambia in
September 1961.
At the award ceremony, Ban said: “I regret to say this
is the seventh year in a row that more than 100 peacekeepers lost their lives.
“The risks that our peacekeepers face are growing
steadily from attacks by extremists and rebel groups to the threat of diseases,
including Ebola.
“Of all the ceremonies that the UN organises, this is
perhaps the most solemn and most difficult, but in many ways it is the most
inspiring.
“The peacekeeping community gathers together to honour
courageous men and women, who lost their lives while defending the most
vulnerable people in some of the most dangerous places on earth.
“Their sacrifice and the way that they lived their
lives, makes us all proud and spurs us on to work harder to ensure that their
lives were not lost in vain.’’
The UN Peacekeeping, Ban said will continue to carry
risks and sadly this will not be the last time we gather together to mourn.
Our peacekeepers carry a heavy burden for all of us.
He said their hard work and successes have made UN
peacekeeping an irreplaceable tool for the international community to address countries
in conflict and to help the millions of people affected by war.
The fact that 125,000 peacekeepers serve today, an
all-time high, Ban said, is a true testament to the faith and confidence
entrusted in them.
The
UN Chief said 41 of the peacekeepers honoured lost their lives in Mali, on May
28, due to acts of violence.
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