Ghanaian peacekeeper to be honoured posthumously at UN Headquarters ceremony

UN Headquarters will observe the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers and mark the 75^th anniversary of UN Peacekeeping on Thursday, 25 May.

During formal ceremonies at United Nations Headquarters, Secretary-General, António Guterres, will lay a wreath to honour the more than 4,200 UN peacekeepers who have lost their lives since 1948. He will also preside over a ceremony in the General Assembly Hall at which Dag Hammarskjöld Medals will be awarded posthumously to 103 military, police, and civilian peacekeepers, who lost their lives serving under the UN flag last year.

Among the peacekeepers to be honoured posthumously with the Dag Hammarskjold medal is one from Ghana: Warrant Officer II John ANGMOR NARTEY, who served with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and who passed away in December 2022.

During the ceremony, the Secretary-General will also present the 2022 Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award to Captain Cecilia Erzuah, a military officer from Ghana who served with the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

Since 1948, more than two million peacekeepers from 125 countries have since served in 71 operations around the world. Today, 87,000 women and men are serving in 12 conflict zones across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Ghana is the 7th largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping. It current deploys more than 2,700 military and police personnel to the UN peace operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cyprus, Lebanon, Mali, the Middle East, Somalia, South Sudan, the Western Sahara, and Yemen.