The United Nations condemns on Sunday, Aug 18, the “unacceptable” level of violence becoming commonplace against humanitarian workers, a record 280 of whom were killed worldwide in 2023. And it warned that the war in Gaza is potentially fueling even higher numbers of such deaths this year.
Aid workers protest in front the UN headquarters in New York (Photo: Zo Haderech)
“The normalization of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere,” Joyce Msuya, acting director of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), says in a statement on the eve of the World Humanitarian Day. “With 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries last year, 2023 marked the deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community,” a 137 percent increase over 2022, when 118 aid workers died, OCHA says in the statement. It cites the Aid Worker Security Database which has tracked such figures back to 1997.
The UN says more than half of the deaths in 2023, or 163, were aid workers killed in Gaza during the first three months of the war in Gaza mainly in Israeli airstrikes. South Sudan, wracked by civil strife, and Sudan, where a war between two rival generals has been raging since April 2023, are the next deadliest conflicts for humanitarians, with 34 and 25 deaths respectively.
Also, the European Union said that 2023 was the deadliest year on record for aid workers, and 2024 is likely to follow the same harrowing trend. A joint statement issued by EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, and Commissioner, Janez Lenarčič, on the World Humanitarian Day stated that: “When disasters strike, crises erupt and conflicts arise, humanitarians are among the first ones on the spot delivering emergency assistance to those affected. This selfless calling to bring relief – but also hope – to the most vulnerable must be honored and protected.”
“Yet we cannot forget the acute danger facing humanitarian workers as they carry out their duties in war zones and environments where their own security is not ensured,” added the statement. The statement read: “We have stated year after year that humanitarian workers must be protected at all costs, without exceptions. But in this increasingly volatile world, words alone are not enough.”
They underscored the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip which they stressed has been “unfolding before our eyes over the past 10 months. In places such as these, where every day is a struggle for survival for every civilian, the life-saving work of the humanitarian community makes a huge difference.” On August 9, the UN relief agency (UNRWA) announced that 205 humanitarian aid workers have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
