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 in the top 10 are Israel and Syria, with seven deaths each; Ethiopia and Ukraine, with six deaths each; Somalia at five fatalities; and Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo with four deaths each.
In all the conflicts, most of the deaths were among local staff.
Despite 2023’s “outrageously high number” of aid worker fatalities, OCHA said 2024 “may be on track for an even deadlier outcome”.
As of Aug 9, 176 aid workers had been killed worldwide, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.
Since October, when Hamas-led militants launched a deadly raid into Israel, triggering the war, more than 280 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, the majority of them employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to OCHA.
Against this backdrop, the leaders of multiple humanitarian organisations will send a letter on Monday to UN member states calling for the international community “to end attacks on civilians, protect all aid workers and hold perpetrators to account”.
Each year, the UN marks World Humanitarian Day on Aug 19, the anniversary of the 2003 attack on its Baghdad headquarters.
The bombing killed 22 people including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN special representative to Iraq, and injured about 150 local and foreign aid workers.
Source: CNA
