The United Nations, UN, says it will honour three fallen Nigerian peacekeepers as well as others in commemoration of this year’s International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.
The three Nigerians are: Lt. Col. Ali Suleiman, who served with the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUSCO; Warrant Officer Remmy Amakwe who was deployed with the African Union – United Nations Mission in Darfur, UNAMID; and Kolawole Shogaolu who served in a civilian capacity in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, MINUSMA.
United Nations Information Centre, UNIC, in a statement by the National Information Officer, Oluseyi Soremekun, said the commemoration will begin on Tuesday, May 29 and the honouring of fallen heroes will take place in New York on Friday, June 1.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres will visit the United Nations Peacekeepers in Mali on May 29, to express his solidarity with “colleagues facing high casualties and enormous volatility.”
Upon his return from Mali, the Secretary-General will preside over the observance of the International Day of Peacekeepers at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Friday, June 1.
He will lay a wreath to honour those who lost their lives while in the service of peace and will also officiate at a ceremony to posthumously present the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal to the 129 military, police and civilian personnel who lost their lives in peacekeeping operations during 2017.
Nigeria is the 41st largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping. It currently contributes more than 500 military and police personnel to the UN peace operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, Mali, Sudan, South Sudan and the Western Sahara.
