The United Nations has awarded the Dag Hammarskjold medal, posthumously, to Zambia Police Service Inspector Nathan Mutamfu, who lost his life on a UN peacekeeping mission.
According to a statement released to the media by Zambia’s First Secretary for Press and Public Relations Permanent Mission to the United Nations Mr Chibaula Silwamba, Mr. Mutamfu died on 23 February 2015 while he was assigned to the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
The fallen peacekeeper from Zambia was among the 128 who posthumously received the Dag Hammarskjold medal at a solemn ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York during commemorations of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.
Military Advisor at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Zambia to the UN, Brigadier General Erick Mwewa received the medal on behalf of the Mr. Mutamfu family.
Zambia is a long-standing troop and police contributing country to UN peacekeeping operations.
Zambia currently contributes a total 908 military and police personnel in seven UN peace operations, with the vast majority serving in the Central African Republic.
More than 105,000 uniformed personnel from 124 troop and police contributing countries currently serve under the blue flag, along with 18,000 international and national civilian staff and United Nations Volunteers.
The General Assembly established the International Day of UN Peacekeepers in 2002, in tribute to all men and women serving in peacekeeping operations for their high level of professionalism, dedication and courage, and to honour the memory of those who have lost their lives in the cause of peace. The General Assembly designated 29 May as the Day for commemorations because it was the date in 1948 when the United Nations’ first peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), began operations.
Therefore, UN peacekeeping operations, UN Information Centres and other UN offices around the world will observe the Day on or around 29 May.
May His Soul Rest in Peace this gallant son of the land. He died with his boots on.
Why Zambian Police Officers dying in peacekeeping missions? In my view the UN should investigate this death as murder as I suspect that the Police Officer may have been killed for his benefits, just as others were killed, one in East Timor and the other one in Liberia as well?
Zambian scam-sters targetting their own countrymen in UN mission for their benefits were already identified and reported to New York. I was injured in the UN mission as my own country men wanted to steal my death benefit on my dead body. But I survived and instead the scam-sters followed me to Zambia and have been extorting from me in abuse of state machinery stealing and looting all my belongings, and they plot to kill me because of such UN mission deaths