WASHINGTON DC: Three Nepali peacekeepers who died in line of duty will be awarded the Dag Hammarskjold Memorial Award by the United Nations (UN).
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres handed over those awards to permanent representatives of Nepal to the United Nations Amrit Rai at an event organized at the UN Headquarters in New York, USA on last Thursday.
The awards were awarded posthumously to Nepal Police’s Umesh Kumar Mehattar (UN Mission in Sudan), Nepali Army’s (NA) Dipendra Osti (UN Mission in South Sudan) and NA’s Pitambar Thapa (UNIFIL Lebanon) on the occasion of the Peacekeepers Day.
Those awarded Nepali peacekeepers lost their lives in various dates last year. Military advisor working in the Nepali permanent mission in the UN Jagadish Khadka, who also attended the UN’s event on Thursday, told Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) that a total of 82 Nepali peacekeepers have died in line of duty as of now.
Altogether, 5,804 Nepali peacekeepers are working in various UN Missions abroad at present.
Since 1948, over 4,000 peacekeepers have lost their lives while serving the peacekeeping forces. Last year alone, “117 women and men in UN’s peacekeeping missions lost their lives while serving the cause of peace,” the secretary-general of the UN tweeted. (RSS)
