The UN office warns that a record number of aid workers will be killed in 2023 and fears that more tragic events will be recorded as wars rage.
According to the United Nations, more than half of the 280 aid workers killed worldwide in 2023 died in the first three months of Israel’s war on Gaza.
The increase in deaths, mainly due to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza between October and December last year, represents a 137% increase from 2022, when 118 aid workers were killed.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Monday that aid workers were killed in 33 countries in 2023, “the deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community.”
But this year, “we could see an even deadlier outcome,” OCHA warns, with 172 aid workers killed since the start of the year, as of August 7.
On World Humanitarian Day, leaders of humanitarian organizations are sending a joint letter to Member States of the United Nations General Assembly, calling for an end to attacks on civilians, better protection of aid workers and accountability.
Violence in Sudan and South Sudan contributed to the death toll in both 2023 and 2024, according to the UN. Meanwhile, several aid workers remain detained in Yemen.
The UN’s acting emergency relief coordinator, Joyce Msuya, said in a statement that “the normalization of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and extremely damaging to aid operations around the world.”
She demanded in a statement that “those in power act to put an end to violations against civilians and the impunity with which these heinous attacks are committed.”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said 207 of its staff have been killed in Gaza since the war began in October last year.
207 @UNRWA team members were killed in #Gaza since the beginning of the war – including in the exercise of their functions.
They were engineers, teachers, medical personnel, aid workers. #WorldHumanitarianDay and every day we remember them and pay tribute to them.#ActForHumanity pic.twitter.com/NsPA98am88
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 19, 2024
“We demand an end to impunity so that the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s executive director, told X: “In Gaza, there have been far too many since the war began 10 months ago. At least 289 aid workers, including 207 UNRWA staff and 885 health workers, have been killed.”
