UN to honour two dead Ghanaian peacekeepers
Two Ghanaian soldiers who died during peacekeeping duty will be honoured at the United Nations Headquarters on Wednesday, 24 May, to mark the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.
The two fallen Ghanaian peacekeepers are among 117 dead soldiers who will posthumously receive the Dag Hammarskjold medal.
The Ghanaian soldiers 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 deployed with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will lay a wreath to honour all fallen peacekeepers and will preside over a ceremony at which the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal will be awarded posthumously to the 117 military, police and civilian personnel who lost their lives while serving in peacekeeping operations during 2016.
The Secretary-General in a video message said “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.”
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, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, South Sudan, Sudan and the Western Sahara.
Source: starrfmonline
