- 62 aid workers have been killed so far in 2023.
- This compares to 116 in 2022.
- The UN observes World Humanitarian Day on 19 August.
A total of 62 humanitarian aid workers have died this year around the world, the United Nations said on Thursday as it prepared to mark 20 years since a devastating attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
The UN observes World Humanitarian Day on 19 August each year as it remembers the suicide bombing, which claimed 22 lives, including that of Sergio Vieira de Mello, then the UN high commissioner for human rights and the head of the UN mission in that country.
Beside the 62 deaths this year in the world’s conflict zones, another 84 aid workers were wounded and 34 were kidnapped, according to the Aid Worker Security Database, compiled by the consulting firm Humanitarian Outcomes.
The fatality figure for all of 2022 was 116.
For several years running, South Sudan has been the world’s most dangerous place for aid workers.
READ | ‘Bodies still lying on the streets or in abandoned homes’: Civilians bearing brunt of Sudan war
As of 10 August, there had been 40 attacks on humanitarian staffers there with 22 lives lost, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Next on the list was Sudan to the north, with 17 attacks on aid workers and 19 deaths so far this year.
A Palestinian youth rests on bags of aid at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warehouse at the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza city.
Such high figures had not been seen since the Darfur conflict from 2006 to 2009.
Other countries where humanitarian workers died include the Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia, Ukraine and Yemen.
“The risks we face are beyond human comprehension,” states a report compiled by NGOs including Doctors of the World, Action Against Hunger and Handicap International, with help from the European Union.
Every year more than 90% of the people who die in attacks on aid workers are locals, according to the International NGO Safety Organisation.
This year World Humanitarian Day marks 20 years since the bombing in Baghdad against the Canal Hotel, which was serving as the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital.
Syrian humanitarian organisations’ workers hold signs during a demonstration denouncing the failure of the United Nations to provide aid to rebel areas following an earthquake, in Sarmada.
This handout image provided by the UN shows UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivering remarks via video during the Unesco world press freedom event at United Nations headquarters in New York City.
That 2003 blast, carried out amid the chaos of the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, killed 22 people, including the Brazilian Vieira de Mello, and wounded around 150 local and international aid workers.
“World Humanitarian Day and the Canal Hotel bombing will always be an occasion of mixed and still raw emotions for me and many others,” said the UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths.
“Every year, nearly six times more aid workers are killed in the line of duty than were killed on that dark day in Baghdad, and they are overwhelmingly local aid workers,” he added.
“Impunity for these crimes is a scar on our collective conscience.”
As upheavals around the world have grown, the UN says it is working to help nearly 250 million people living in crisis areas.
That is 10 times more than in 2003.
