UN demands action as aid worker deaths hit record high

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) said today as it marked World Humanitarian Day, Report informs.

With 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries last year, 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.

2024 may be on track for an even deadlier outcome. As of 7 August, 172 aid workers have been killed, according to the provisional count from the Aid Worker Security Database.

More than half of the 2023 deaths were recorded in the first three months – October to December – of the hostilities 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 – have been killed in Gaza alone.

Extreme levels of violence in Sudan and South Sudan have contributed to the tragic death toll, both in 2023 and in 2024.