UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres conveyed his condolences and tributes to King Mohammed VI for the sacrifice of two Moroccan peacekeepers.
At a ceremony on the occasion of the International Day blue helmetscelebrated on May 29 of each year, the ambassador, permanent representative of Morocco to the UN, Omar Hilale, received the Dag Hammarskjold medal from the hands of the UN Secretary-General, on behalf of the valiant Moroccan blue helmets, in recognition of their sacrifice, their courage, their abnegation and their great sense of responsibility.
On this painful occasion, Mr. Guterres instructed Mr. Hilale to convey his sincere condolences to King Mohammed VI, Supreme Chief and Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces, expressing to him the sincere gratitude of the United Nations for the continued support of the Kingdom of Morocco to peacekeeping operations.
This tribute is a recognition of the pioneering role played by Morocco in peacekeeping in Africa and around the world, under the far-sighted leadership of King Mohammed VI. Mr. Guterres also instructed Mr. Hilale to convey his condolences to the families of the deceased, who perished defending the principles and universal values of peace and stability under the UN banner. They are the late Lieutenant Mohamed Zerrik and the late Sergeant Rachid Marchich who served in the contingent of the Royal Armed Forces deployed with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
In a message for the occasion, Mr. Hilale saluted the memory of the honorable peacekeepers who “made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the noblest of all causes, peace”. While expressing, on behalf of the Kingdom of Morocco, “its sincere condolences to the bereaved families of our brave brothers and to our large family of United Nations peacekeeping forces”, the Ambassador expressed his feelings of solidarity and compassion to the members of these families.
Morocco currently deploys more than 1,700 soldiers and police in UN operations in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.