[Watch the video on webtv.un.org]
Today we honor more than one million men and women who have served as United Nations peacekeepers since our first mission in 1948.
We remember the more than 3,800 personnel who paid the ultimate price.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General
The Secretary-General is concerned by the developments in the Golan on 27 May.
He calls on the parties to the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement to respect the terms of the Agreement and to closely liaise with the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) to prevent any further incidents and escalation of the situation.
The world does not have many true heroes.
But the late Private Chancy Chitete, of Malawi was indeed one of them and we unfortunately lost him last year.
Private Chitete was serving with MONUSCO -- the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Last November, Tanzanian and Malawian peacekeepers came under heavy fire while conducting an operation to stop attacks on local towns by an armed group, the ADF, that was disrupting the Ebola response.
I am honoured to join you today to remember the brave women and men who have lost their lives while serving in UN Peacekeeping.
More than 3,800 military, police and civilian peacekeepers have lost their lives since the United Nations deployed the first of its 72 peacekeeping missions back in 1948.
These peacekeepers gave their lives to protect others and to give war-torn countries a chance for peace and hope.
Today, in 14 missions around the world, our peacekeepers serve heroically to preserve peace and stability.
Minister Meleșcanu, Ambassadors, distinguished colleagues,
I thank Romania for organizing this timely event, taking place in the wake of the biannual UN-EU Steering Committee meeting on Crisis Management and coinciding with the annual visit of the EU’s Political and Security Committee to New York. Evidently, the UN-EU partnership on peace and security is vibrant and wide-ranging.
As New York Headquarters observes the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers on Friday, 24 May, Secretary-General António Guterres will lay a wreath to honour all fallen peacekeepers and preside over a ceremony for the posthumous award of the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal to 119 military, police and civilian personnel who have paid the ultimate price while serving in peacekeeping operations in 2018 and early 2019.
On Friday, 24 May, Secretary-General António Guterres will award the “Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal for Exceptional Courage” to the late Private Chancy Chitete of Malawi during the International Day of UN Peacekeepers commemorations at UN Headquarters in New York.
The Secretary-General condemns today's attacks against the United Nation's Integrated Stabilization Mission for Mali (MINUSMA) in Timbuktu and Tessalit.
He is deeply saddened at the death of a Nigerian peacekeeper who succumbed to his wounds following the armed attack by unidentified assailants in Timbuktu. He expresses heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family and to the Government of Nigeria. He wishes a speedy recovery to another Nigerian peacekeeper who was wounded in the same attack.
