UN Secretary-General António Guterres posthumously honored Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Mizyura, the senior Russian military observer group attached to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It has been reported DEA News With reference to Fyodor Strzhizhovsky, press secretary of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation.
He noted that the UN Secretary General awarded the Dag Hammarskjöld medal to the Russian peacekeeper who was martyred in the line of duty on the eve of the International Day of Peacekeeping, celebrated around the world on May 29.
“The place on this tragic list was taken by Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Mizyura, the top Russian military observer group at the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Strzhizhovsky said.
The medal, which was handed over to Vasily Nebenza, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, will soon be sent to the deceased’s relatives.
Swedish Dag Hammarskjöld was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961. He died in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia during the UN peacekeeping operation in the Congo. The exact causes and circumstances of the disaster are still unknown.
Last year, demonstrators raided and looted UN mission buildings and warehouses in the city of Goma, east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).