Over 3,000 peacekeepers have lost their lives in line of duty - UN Resident Coordinator

Since the first UN peacekeeping mission to date, a total of 3,800 peacekeepers have lost lives in their course of work to restore peace in war-torn countries, Dr Owen Kaluwa has said.

Last year, the United Nation (UN) lost 98 peacekeepers including two Ghanaians, Frank Sammy Kwofie, who served as the Deputy Commissioner of Police at the UN African Union Missions in Darfur and Corporal Mercy Adade who also worked with the Interim Force in Lebanon.

Appreciating the works of fallen heroes at the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers ceremony in Accra on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, the UN Resident Coordinator noted that, peacekeepers often risk their lives to protect men, women and children from violence.

The two Ghanaian fallen heroes have been posthumously awarded a Dag Hammarskjöld Medal for their selfless service towards sustaining peace worldwide.

Speaking on the theme, “Protecting Civilians, Protecting eace”, Dr Kaluwa noted that, under the protection of Civilians mandate, the UN Peacekeeping missions employ all means to prevent or respond to threats of physical violence against civilians without any prejudice to the responsibility of the host government.

Background

Every May 29 is set aside to honour peacekeepers, including uniformed and civilian personnel who lost their lives while serving.

Since 1948, more than one million men and women have served in 72 UN peacekeeping operations, directly impacting the lives of millions of people, protecting the world’s most vulnerable countries and saving countless lives.

The UN in its operations have been able to transform war torn countries into peaceful ones.

In recent times, the UN has been able to deploy 88,000 military and police personnel from 124 member states, nearly 13,300 civilian personnel and 1,300 UN volunteers.