New York-UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has awarded the Dag Hammarshjold Medal to 129 military, Police and civilian personnel, including three Nigerians, who lost their lives in 2017 while serving under the UN flag. Guterres paid tribute to the peacekeepers at the commemoration of the international day of united nation peacekeepers 2018, at the UN Headquarters in New York, US.
He commended the services and sacrifices made by fallen heroes for peace around the world.
The three fallen Nigerian peacekeepers included Lt.-Col. Ali Sulieman, who served with the UN Organisation Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The others were Warrant Officer Remmy Amakwe, who was deployed with the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur; and Mr Kolawole Shogaolu, who served in civilian capacity in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali.
Nigeria is the 41st largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping, according to a recent statistics.