United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has paid tributes to Brigadier General 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.”
Brigadier Jha has been serving as Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) since April 2023 and has 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 Organization 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 General 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 & before his deployment to UNDOF, had commanded a Brigade in the Glaciated Mountainous terrain of India, and a Specialised unit as a Commanding Officer.
#GeneralUpendraDwivedi #COAS and All Ranks of #IndianArmy express deepest condolences on the untimely demise of Brigadier Amitabh Jha due to medical reasons, who was deployed on a #UN Mission as Deputy Force Commander (DFC) in #UnitedNations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF),… pic.twitter.com/AaLZTgTFD8
— ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) December 24, 2024
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.