Last year was the deadliest so far, with 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries - an “outrageously high number”, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The figure represents a 137 per cent increase compared to 2022, when 118 aid workers were killed.

Humanitarian deaths mounting

Worse still is that 2024 may be on track to be even deadlier.

As of 7 August, 172 aid workers have been killed, OCHA said, citing the provisional count from the Aid Worker Security Database. 

The UN agency said that more than half of the 2023 deaths were recorded in the first three months of the hostilities in Gaza, or from October to December.  Most were due to airstrikes.

Since October, more than 280 aid workers have been killed in Gaza alone, the majority of them staff members of the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA.

Additionally, “extreme levels of violence” in Sudan and South Sudan have contributed to the death tolls in 2023 and 2024.

In all these conflicts, most of those killed were national staff. Meanwhile, many humanitarian workers also continue to be detained in Yemen.

Unacceptable and unconscionable

Joyce Msuya, UN Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, called for action.

“The normalization of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere,” she said.

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.”

#ActforHumanity

World Humanitarian Day is observed annually on 19 August – the date in 2003 when a bomb attack at the UN’s headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian workers, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq.

Each year, the commemoration focuses on a theme in efforts to advocate for the survival, well-being and dignity of people caught in crises, and the safety and security of aid workers.

The 2024 campaign, #ActForHumanity, aims to build public support to help pressure warring parties and world leaders to better ensure the protection of civilians, including humanitarians, caught in conflict zones.

Call for protection

Humanitarian organizations worldwide have also written to UN Member States calling for greater efforts to protect all aid workers, their premises and assets, as stipulated in UN Security Council resolution 2730 (2024), adopted in May.

Perpetrators must also be held to account, they added, noting that those who commit violations of international humanitarian law cannot go unpunished.

“We will continue to stay and deliver in humanitarian crises around the world – but the situation requires us to take a united stand to call for the protection of our staff, volunteers and the civilians we serve,” the letter said.