Six Bangladeshi fallen peacekeepers who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty will be honoured with the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will posthumously award the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal to six Bangladeshi peacekeepers at the UN Headquarters in New York on June 5.
The recipients of the medals are Md Jahangir Alam, Md Sobuj Mia, Md Masud Rana, Md Mominul Islam, Shamim Reza, and Santo Mondol.
These six Bangladeshi fallen peacekeepers were tragically killed in a drone strike on December 13, 2025, while serving in the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in South Sudan.
The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal is a posthumous award presented by the United Nations to military, police, or civilian personnel who lose their lives while serving in a UN peacekeeping operation. The medal is a clear, colorless lead glass crystal ellipsoid. It is grit-blasted with the recipient's name and date of death, featuring the UN logo and inscriptions in both English and French.
Bangladesh is the fourth largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping.
It currently deploys more than 4,000 military and police personnel, including 277 women, to the UN operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Libya, South Sudan, and Western Sahara.
The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers was observed around the world on Friday to pay tribute to all women and men serving in UN peacekeeping, and to honour the memory of those who have lost their lives in the cause of peace.
The UN Headquarters will, however, observe the day on June 5.
Secretary-general Antonio Guterres will lay a wreath to honour the nearly 4,500 peacekeepers who have lost their lives since 1948 and preside over a ceremony at which the Dag Hammarskjold Medal will be awarded posthumously to 68 military, police, and civilian peacekeepers, who paid the ultimate price in the line of duty, including 59 who perished last year.
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