UNITED NATIONS, May 23 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that late Malawian soldier Chancy Chitete will be honored with the UN's highest peacekeeping award on Friday.
"The Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal for Exceptional Courage is being awarded for the first time. We pay tribute to Private Chancy Chitete, a Malawian who served in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and died trying to save the life of a fellow peacekeeper," the UN chief said in his message for the International Day of Peacekeepers, which falls on May 29.
Chitete was killed in November 2018, during an operation in the eastern part of the DRC to combat the ADF, an armed force that had been terrorizing civilians and disrupting the UN's ongoing efforts to treat and halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
"Today we honor more than 1 million men and women who have served as United Nations peacekeepers since our first mission in 1948," said the UN chief in the message. "We remember the more than 3,800 personnel who paid the ultimate price. And we express our deepest gratitude to the 100,000 civilian, police and military peacekeepers deployed around the world today, and to the countries that contribute these brave and dedicated women and men."
The secretary-general said that this year, the UN marks 20 years since the Security Council first mandated a peacekeeping mission to protect civilians. He noted that peacekeepers protect men, women and children from violence every day, often at great personal risk.
UN peacekeeping is "a vital investment" in global peace and security, he said, adding it requires "strong international commitment."
"For millions in conflict-affected situations around the world, peacekeeping is a necessity and a hope. Let us work together to make peacekeeping more effective in protecting people and advancing peace," he said.
On May 8, 2014, the UN Security Council created "the Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal for Exceptional Courage" in honor of the actions of Diagne during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. The first inaugural award was given to Diagne's family in his honor in 2016. Despite a number of remarkable nominations over the past four years, the awarding of the medal to Private Chitete will mark the first time the actions of a UN peacekeeper have been found to meet the standards set by the Security Council.
