The United Nations will honor four Nepali UN peacekeepers posthumously on Thursday on the occasion of International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers at its headquarters in New York, the UN announced in a press statement.

The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal will be awarded posthumously to four Nepali nationals who had served in different capacities in Lebanon, South Sudan. These four were among a total of 117 peacekeepers who had lost their lives last year while conducting UN missions.

Since 1948, over a million peacekeepers around the world had served in different capacities in the UN peacekeeping mission.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement on Wednesday said, “We pay tribute to the nearly 4,200 heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives in the cause of peace. And we are reminded of an age-old truth: peace can never be taken for granted. Peace is the prize.”

He further added, “We are deeply grateful to the 87,000 civilian, police, and military personnel now serving under the UN flag who are helping to realize the prize of peace worldwide.”

Nepal is the second largest contributor of uniformed officers to UN Peacekeeping, as over 5,700 of its military and police personnel are deployed to the UN operations in different conflict zones, according to the United Nations.

(SAM)