The United Nations will be honouring four Nepali UN peacekeepers posthumously on May 26 to mark the occasion of International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, the UN said in a press statement on Wednesday.

The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal will be awarded posthumously to NCE Pitambar Thapa of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL); Private Dipendra Osti, who served with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS); Police POA Umesh Kumar Mehattar, who served with the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and Jhanak Nath Regmi who served in a civilian capacity in the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), alongside 117 military, police, and civilian peacekeepers, who lost their lives serving under the UN flag last year.

In his message, Secretary-General of the UN António Guterres said: “Today, we honour the more than one million women and men who have served as UN peacekeepers since 1948. 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. We are deeply grateful to the 87,000 civilian, police and military personnel now serving under the UN flag who are helping to realise the prize of peace worldwide.”

According to the UN, Nepal is the second largest contributor of uniformed officers to UN Peacekeeping. More than 5,700 military and police personnel from Nepal are deployed to the UN operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, the Middle East, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, and Western Sahara.