UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations warned that 2023 is set to become another year of high death tolls and injuries for aid workers due to conflict and insecurity in countries such as South Sudan.
So far this year, 62 aid workers have been killed in crises around the world, 84 have been wounded and 34 kidnapped, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, citing provisional data from the Aid Worker Security Database research team at Humanitarian Outcomes.
South Sudan has ranked highest in insecurity for humanitarians for several consecutive years, the office said, noting that 40 attacks on aid workers and 22 fatalities had been reported as of Aug 16.
Sudan is a close second, with 17 attacks on humanitarians and 19 fatalities reported so far this year.
Other aid worker casualties have been recorded in the Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia and Ukraine, according to OCHA.
Meanwhile, the UN observes World Humanitarian Day on Aug 19 each year as it remembers the suicide bombing on the UN headquarters in Baghdad., 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 Iraq.
Besides 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. As of Aug. 10, 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. 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,” says 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 Organization.
This year World Humanitarian Day marks 20 years since the bombing in Baghdad against the Canal Hotel, which was serving as the U.N. headquarters in the Iraqi capital.
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 United Nations says it is working to help nearly 250 million people living in crisis areas. That is 10 times more than in 2003. — NNN-AGENCIES
