Aid workers on the frontlines of the world’s conflicts are being killed in unprecedented numbers, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned Monday.
Marking World Humanitarian Day, OCHA said in a statement 280 aid workers were killed in 33 countries last year. The agency said 2023 marked the deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community.
“This outrageously high number represents a 137 percent increase compared to 2022, when 118 aid workers were killed,” the statement read.
According to OCHA, 2024 may be on track for an even deadlier outcome as by August 7, 172 aid workers had been killed.
More than half of the 2023 deaths were recorded in the first three months – October to December – in Gaza, mostly as a result of airstrikes.
Since October, more than 280 aid workers – the majority of them staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) – have been killed in Gaza alone.
Extreme levels of violence in Sudan and South Sudan have also contributed to the tragic death toll, both in 2023 and in 2024.
In all these conflicts, most of the casualties are among national staff.
Many humanitarian workers also continue to be detained in Yemen.
“The normalization of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere,” said Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
“Today, we reiterate our demand that people in power act to end violations against civilians and the impunity with which these heinous attacks are committed.”
