The UN on Monday condemned the “unacceptable” violence that is becoming commonplace against humanitarian workers, 280 of whom were killed worldwide in 2023, a record fueled by the war in Gaza and which risks being broken as early as 2024.
“The normalisation of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability is unacceptable, unconscionable and extremely dangerous for humanitarian operations everywhere,” said Joyce Msuya, acting head of the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), on World Humanitarian Day.
“Dear world leaders, what more do you need before you act?” she asked.
“In Gaza, Sudan, and many other places, humanitarian workers are being attacked, killed, injured and kidnapped. We demand an end to impunity so that those responsible are brought to justice,” added UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“2023 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarians. Paying tribute to them on World Humanitarian Day is not enough,” he insisted.
According to figures from the Aid Worker Security Database, used by the UN, 280 aid workers were killed in 33 countries last year.
This is the deadliest year recorded since this record began in 1997 and an increase of 137% compared to 2022 (118 deaths).
More than half of the 2023 deaths (163) are aid workers killed in Gaza during the first three months of the war between Israel and Hamas, mainly in airstrikes.
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South Sudan, hit by civil and intercommunal violence, and Sudan, where a war between two rival generals has been raging since April 2023, are the two other deadliest conflicts for humanitarians, with 34 and 25 deaths respectively. Also in the top 10 are Israel and Syria (seven deaths each), Ethiopia and Ukraine (six deaths each), Somalia (five), the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burma (four each).
If the 280 deaths in 2023 already represent a “scandalous” number, “2024 could well be on the path to an even more deadly outcome,” OCHA warns.
According to the Aid Worker Security Database, 176 aid workers were killed between 1er January and August 9, 2024 (including 121 in the Palestinian territories), a figure already higher than most previous full years (the previous record was in 2013 with 159 deaths).
Since October, more than 280 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, the majority of them employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), according to the United Nations.
In this context, more than 400 NGOs and UN agencies, from the International Committee of the Red Cross to the World Food Programme, called on Monday in a joint letter to UN member states “for the protection of civilians, including their personnel”.
“Attacks that kill or injure civilians, including humanitarian and medical personnel, are disastrously commonplace. And despite widespread condemnation, serious violations of the rules of war too often go unpunished,” they write. “This status quo is shameful and cannot continue.”
A call that the public is invited to join on social networks under the hashtag #ActforHumanity.
Every year, the UN marks World Humanitarian Day on 19 August, the anniversary of the bombing of its headquarters in Baghdad in 2003. The bombing killed 22 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN special representative in Iraq, and injured some 150 other local and foreign aid workers.