383 Aid Workers Killed In 2024, UN Says
…As WHO Records 1,110 Health Worker, Patients’ Deaths
The United Nations on Tuesday reported that a record 383 humanitarian workers were killed in 2024, describing the figure and the continued lack of accountability as a “shameful indictment” of current global standards.
According to the UN, the 2024 figure marked a 31 per cent rise from 2023, driven largely by the conflicts in Gaza, where 181 aid workers were killed, and Sudan, where 60 lives were lost. The organisation said State actors were the most frequent perpetrators.
Most of those killed were local staff, attacked either while carrying out their duties or in their homes. Beyond the fatalities, the UN said 308 aid workers were injured, 125 kidnapped, and 45 detained last year.
“Even one attack against a humanitarian colleague is an attack on all of us and the people we serve,” said UN aid chief Tom Fletcher.
“Attacks on this scale, with zero accountability, are a shameful indictment of international inaction and apathy. We again call on those with power to protect civilians and aid workers and hold perpetrators to account,” he added.
So far in 2025, provisional data from the Aid Worker Security Database shows 265 aid workers killed as of August 14.
The UN stressed that such attacks violate international humanitarian law and weaken the lifelines sustaining millions trapped in conflict and disaster zones.
“Violence against aid workers is not inevitable. It must end,” Fletcher stated.
The World Health Organisation also confirmed that more than 800 attacks on health care facilities across 16 territories this year, leaving over 1,110 health workers and patients dead and hundreds more wounded.
“Each attack inflicts lasting harm, depriving entire communities of care when they need it most,” the WHO said.
World Humanitarian Day is marked each year on August 19, in remembrance of the 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed UN rights chief Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other humanitarian staff.
383 Aid Workers Killed In 2024, UN Says is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
