Rabat – The United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday paid tribute to more than 4,200 blue helmets – UN peacekeepers – including two Moroccan nationals who have sacrificed their lives for the ideal of global peace since May 1948.
On the occasion of the Peacekeepers’ Day, Guterres delivered the Dag Hammarskjold medal award to Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the UN Omar Hilale in recognition of the sacrifices and courage of Moroccan peacekeepers.
Cherishing the memory and hard work of fallen blue helmets, the UN official noted that the late soldiers and police personnel came from 42 countries and worked “tirelessly in the toughest of conditions and constantly innovated to protect the most vulnerable … to advance the greatest mission of all — peace.”
Guterres sent his sincere condolences to King Mohammed VI and the families of late Lieutenant Mohamed Zerrik and Sergeant Rachid Marchich who represented the Royal Armed Forces in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
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He further expressed his gratitude for the Moroccan contribution and support to the peacekeeping operations.
Ambassador Hilale echoed Guterres’s message, as he paid tribute to the memory of the late blue helmets who “made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the noblest of all causes, peace.”
The Moroccan ambassador extended his sincere condolences to “the bereaved families of our brave brothers and to our large family of United Nations peacekeeping forces.”
In April, the Diplomatic Courier’s Good Country Index (GCI) ranked Morocco as the first global contributor to international peace and security based on the country’s contribution to peacekeeping operations and the UN peacekeeping budget, as well as its efforts to address cybersecurity and refrain from exporting weapons.
Currently, more than 1,700 Moroccan soldiers and police personnel are deployed in UN operations in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and South Sudan.
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