UN office warns that a record number of aid workers were killed in 2023 and fears further grim milestones could be set as wars rage.
More than half of the 280 aid workers killed worldwide in 2023 died during the first three months of Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the United Nations.
The rise in deaths, mainly due to Israeli air attacks in Gaza between October and December last year, represents a 137 percent increase compared with 2022, when 118 aid workers were killed.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday that aid workers were killed in 33 countries in 2023, the “deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community”.
But this year “may be on track for an even deadlier outcome”, OCHA warned, with 172 aid workers killed so far this year as of August 7.
Marking World Humanitarian Day, leaders of humanitarian organisations are sending a joint letter to UN General Assembly member states, calling for an end to attacks on civilians, enhanced protection for aid workers, and accountability for those responsible.
Violence in Sudan and South Sudan has contributed to the death toll, both in 2023 and in 2024, said the UN. Meanwhile, several humanitarian workers continue to be detained in Yemen.
The UN’s acting emergency relief coordinator, Joyce Msuya, said in a statement that “the normalisation of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere”.
She demanded in a statement that “people in power act to end violations against civilians and the impunity with which these heinous attacks are committed”.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has said 207 of its staff members have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war in October last year.
207 @UNRWA team members have been killed in #Gaza since the war began – including in the line of duty.
They were engineers, teachers, medical staff. They were humanitarian workers. On #WorldHumanitarianDay and every day we remember and pay tribute to them all.#ActForHumanity pic.twitter.com/NsPA98am88
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 19, 2024
“We demand an end to impunity so that perpetrators face justice,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said on X: “In Gaza, there have been way too many of them since the war started 10 months ago. At least 289 aid workers including 207 UNRWA team members and 885 health workers lost.”