The United Nations on Friday honoured three Nigerians and 80 other military, police and civilian peacekeepers, who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2019.

The fallen heroes were posthumously awarded the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal during a virtual award ceremony to mark the 2020 International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.

Two of them, Henry Ukomadu, a police sergeant, and Moshood Lasisi, an Army warrant officer, died while serving with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

The third fallen Nigerian peacekeeper, Gabriel Shogaolu, died while serving also with MINUSMA but in civilian capacity in 2017.

During the ceremony, streamed live on the UN website, the recipients’ names were announced and displayed on the screen alongside condolence messages from their countries’ Permanent Representatives to the UN.