Secretary-General pays tribute to Indian army officer who led UN peacekeeping force

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has paid tributes to Brigadier Amitabh Jha of India, who was serving with the UNDOF at Golan Heights, and said he will be remembered for his “leadership and unwavering commitment to United Nations peacekeeping”.

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Brigadier Jha was serving as Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) from April 2023 and had recently served as acting Force Commander of UNDOF in complex circumstances, following the fall of the Assad government in Syria.

“He will be remembered for his leadership and unwavering commitment to United Nations peacekeeping, including in the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) as a Military Observer from 2005 to 2006,” a statement by the spokesman for Guterres said late on Tuesday.

The Secretary-General extends his heartfelt condolences to Brigadier Jha's family and to the Government of India for their loss, the statement added.

Earlier, the Indian Army while paying tributes to Brigadier Jha in a post on X said, “#GeneralUpendraDwivedi #COAS and All Ranks of #IndianArmy express deepest condolences on the untimely demise of Brigadier Amitabh Jha due to medical reasons.”

“Indian Army stands firm with the bereaved family in this hour of grief,” it had added in the post along with Jha's photo.

According to the UNDOF website, Brigadier Jha joined the UNDOF Mission on April 14, 2023. He was an Infantry Officer & prior to his deployment to UNDOF, had commanded a Brigade in Glaciated Mountainous terrain of India, and a Specialised unit as Commanding Officer.

Jha had a keen interest in reading on “military diplomacy, geopolitics, Indo-Pacific, modern & small wars, sub-conventional warfare & tribes & culture,” it said, adding, he was a keen sports enthusiast, who played troop games and enjoyed backpacking in the mountains.