UN News Today 19 August 2024 |

UN and partners appeal for greater protection of aid workers on World Humanitarian Day 

With the number of aid workers killed in conflict reaching record levels, the UN and partners are urging governments to put pressure on warring parties to end impunity for attacks, in an appeal issued on Monday, World Humanitarian Day.

Last year, 280 aid workers were killed in 33 countries making 2023 the deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community.

The UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, warns that 2024 may be even deadlier. As of 7 August, 172 aid workers have been killed to date, according to provisional data.

OCHA said more than half of the 2023 deaths were recorded in the first three months of the hostilities in Gaza, or from October to December, and were mostly due to airstrikes.

Since October, more than 280 aid workers have been killed in Gaza alone. The majority were staff members of the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA.

Louise Wateridge, a senior communications officer with UNRWA, describes the situation of many colleagues there.

 “Our staff in the north as well, our staff in the south, all over; the health workers, they’re telling us how they take their children to work with them because they don’t dare leave them at home. They don’t dare be apart from their families in case somebody is killed in a strike and they’re not together, they tell me, the colleagues tell me that they would rather die together than die separately.”

World Humanitarian Day is observed annually on 19 August – the date in 2003 when a bomb attack at the UN’s headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian workers, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq.

Nearly 2,000 attacks on healthcare since start of war in Ukraine: WHO

In related developments:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed 1,940 attacks on healthcare in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion 2.5 years ago.

This is the highest number the UN agency has ever recorded in any humanitarian emergency globally to date. 

WHO also noted new patterns in the progression of the attacks.  The majority, 86 per cent, have impacted health facilities, with a significant proportion involving the use of heavy weapons.

Moreover, the attacks that it has verified on health facilities have intensified significantly since December 2023 – occurring on a near-daily basis.

WHO’s Emanuele Bruni has more details.

“Since the beginning of 2024, we have observed a lot of “double tap” hits; basically (there’s) data that health workers are three times more prone to be attacked. This is absolutely hampering the response and also the healthcare status of the population as well as of the health system. It’s very important to remind that Ukraine remains a very, very difficult emergency due to the incredible amount of violence, and despite these ongoing attacks, it is very important to remember that the health workers remain resilient.”

WHO also documented 24 deaths among health workers and patients in 2023, while 34 people have died from attacks on healthcare since January of this year.

Furthermore, the level of injuries this year, 299 to date, has exceeded those reported in both 2022 and 2023.

Sudan: Guterres welcomes plan to reopen Adre aid corridor with Chad

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has commended the decision by the Sudanese authorities to reopen the Adre border crossing with Chad – a key corridor for aid to enter the war-ravaged country.

The Adre crossing, which has been closed since February, is the most direct and efficient route for humanitarian aid to reach millions in Sudan’s Darfur region who are facing record levels of acute hunger.

Food security experts recently confirmed that the war between rival Sudanese militaries, which erupted in April 2023, has pushed parts of North Darfur state into famine, particularly the Zamzam camp where more than half a million displaced people are sheltering.

“The Secretary-General underscores the importance of concrete and sustained measures to facilitate humanitarian access and protect civilians, in accordance with the obligations of Sudanese parties under international humanitarian law and previously agreed modalities,” his Spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said in a statement issued over the weekend.

UN agencies including the World Food Programme (WFP) have welcomed the news of the reopening of the Adre crossing.

The development will allow WFP to scale up assistance in Sudan, to 14 areas facing famine in Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Al Jazirah. 

Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved