Last year was the deadliest year to date, with 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries – an ‘absurdly high number’, speak United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
This image represents a Up 137 percent from 2022when 118 aid workers were killed.
Humanitarian deaths on the rise
Worse yet, 2024 could be even deadlier.
As of August 7, 172 aid workers have died.OCHA said, citing provisional figures from the Aid Worker Security Database.
The UN agency said more than half of the 2,023 deaths were recorded in the first three months of fighting in Gaza, or from October to December. Most were due to airstrikes.
Since October, more than 280 aid workers have been killed in Gaza alone, most of them employees of the UN agency that assists Palestinian refugees. UNRWA.
Additionally, “extreme levels of violence” in Sudan and South Sudan contributed to the increased death toll in 2023 and 2024.
In all of these conflicts, most of those killed have been national servicemen. Meanwhile, many humanitarian aid workers continue to be detained in Yemen.
Unacceptable and unconscionable
Joyce Msuya, Acting UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, called for action.
“The normalisation of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability is unacceptable, unconscionable and hugely damaging to aid operations. “Everywhere,” she said.
Today, we reiterate our demand that those in power act to end the violations against civilians and the impunity that these brutal attacks inflict.”
#Action for humanity
World Humanitarian Day is held annually on August 19 – the day in 2003 when a bombing at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian workers, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq.
Each year, the celebration focuses on a theme in an effort to protect the survival, well-being and dignity of people in crisis, as well as the safety and security of aid workers.
The 2024 campaign, #ActForHumanity, aims to build public support to help pressure warring parties and world leaders to better ensure the protection of civilians, including humanitarian workers, caught in conflict zones.
Call for protection
Humanitarian organizations around the world have also written to UN member states calling for greater efforts to protect all aid workers, their facilities and assets, as stipulated in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2730 (2024)passed in May.
Offenders must also be held accountable, they added, noting that violators international humanitarian law cannot go unpunished.
“We will continue to stay and assist in humanitarian crises around the world. – but the situation requires us to take a unified stance to call for the protection of our staff, volunteers and the people we serve,” the letter said.
