A staggering 281 support staff have been killed around the globe to this point this yr, making 2024 the deadliest yr for humanitarians, the UN support chief mentioned Friday.
“Humanitarian staff are being killed at an unprecedented price, their braveness and humanity being met with bullets and bombs,” mentioned Tom Fletcher, the United Nations’ new under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency reduction coordinator.
With greater than a month left to go of 2024, the “grim milestone was reached”, he mentioned, after 280 humanitarians have been killed throughout 33 international locations throughout all of 2023.
“This violence is unconscionable and devastating to assist operations,” Fletcher mentioned.
Israel’s devastating conflict in Gaza was driving up the numbers, his workplace mentioned, with 333 support staff killed there — most from the UN company supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA — since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assaults, which sparked the conflict.
“States and events to battle should shield humanitarians, uphold worldwide regulation, prosecute these accountable, and name time on this period of impunity,” Fletcher mentioned.
Support staff have been topic to kidnappings, accidents, harassment and arbitrary detention in a variety of nations, his workplace mentioned, together with Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Ukraine.
Nearly all of deaths contain native employees working with non-governmental organisations, UN businesses and the Pink Cross Pink Crescent motion, Fletcher’s workplace mentioned.
“Violence towards humanitarian personnel is a part of a broader pattern of hurt to civilians in battle zones,” it warned.
“Final yr, greater than 33,000 civilian deaths have been recorded in 14 armed conflicts — a staggering 72 per cent enhance from 2022.”
The UN Safety Council adopted a decision final Might in response to the surging violence and threats towards support staff.
The textual content known as for suggestions from the UN chief — set to be introduced at a council assembly subsequent week — on measures to stop and reply to such incidents and to extend safety for humanitarian employees and accountability for abuses.
