UN warns of ‘unacceptable’ level of violence against aid workers

New York: The United Nations on Monday condemned the “unacceptable” level of violence becoming commonplace against humanitarian workers, a record 280 of whom were killed worldwide in 2023.

And it warned that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is potentially fueling even higher numbers of such deaths this year.

“The normalization of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere,” Joyce Msuya, acting director of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a statement on World Humanitarian Day.

“With 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries last year, 2023 marked the deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community,” a 137 percent increase over 2022, when 118 aid workers died, OCHA said in the statement.

It cited the Aid Worker Security Database which has tracked such figures back to 1997.