Two peacekeepers in Mali become first UN troops to die of Covid-19
Two United Nations peacekeepers in Mali have died from Covid-19, the UN Secretary General said on Friday.
Of about 100,000 UN troops deployed around the world, they were the first whose deaths were directly linked to the pandemic.
“Yesterday and today, two of our military colleagues have passed away due to Covid-19,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said during a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York to honour peacekeepers killed in conflict.
One was from Cambodia and the other from El Salvador, “both members of Minusma”, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, he said.
Mr Guterres said the coronavirus pandemic had changed almost everything, but not “the service, sacrifice and selflessness” of more than 95,000 men and women serving in the 13 UN peacekeeping missions around the world.
Including soldiers, police officers, civilians and all affiliated staff, as of Friday there were 137 cases of the coronavirus throughout the peacekeeping missions, with 53 recovered and the two dead, the UN said.
Minusma is the hardest-hit mission, with 90 cases of infection, 43 recoveries and the two deaths.
The next-worst affected missions are in Democratic Republic of Congo, with 21 cases of infection and three recovered, and in Central African Republic, with 17 cases of infection and two recoveries. Other cases have been reported among peacekeepers in South Sudan, Libya, Israel and Darfur, the UN said.
There were three cases each in South Sudan and Cyprus, and one each in Lebanon, the UN-African Union mission in Sudan’s Darfur region, and the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation in the Middle East.
In 2019, 83 soldiers, police officers and civilians in 39 countries were killed during peacekeeping missions.