Over 1,000 Aid Workers Killed In Last 3 Years, U.N. Says
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – More than 1,000 humanitarian workers have been killed around the world in the past three years, nearly three times the number of deaths in the previous three years, the UN said Wednesday.
“This is not an accidental escalation of tensions, it is a collapse of protection,” U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the U.N. Security Council.
He said that of the more than 1,010 humanitarian workers killed from 2023 to 2025, more than 560 were in Gaza and the West Bank, while 130 were in the West Bank. Sudan60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine and 25 in Congo. This compares with 377 people killed from 2020 to 2022.
The increase in deaths occurred during the war between Israel and Hamas, which began in October 2023. A ceasefire has been in effect since October 2025, although ceasefires and air strikes continue.
Fletcher said at least 326 aid workers were recorded as being killed in 21 countries last year alone. in 2024A record 383 people were killed as food, water, shelter and medicine were distributed in global hotspots.
“They died in clearly marked convoys and in missions coordinated directly with authorities,” the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said.
The Security Council was meeting on a resolution it adopted in May 2024, strongly condemning attacks on humanitarian workers and UN personnel and demanding that all combatants protect themselves in accordance with international law.
Fletcher asked 15 members of the UN’s most powerful body whether the killings were because international law was “no longer appropriate” or because “it is more important to protect those who design, sell, supply and fire lethal weapons.”
“Or is it because member states see these figures as collateral damage, part of the fog of war? Or worse, are we now seen as legitimate targets?” he asked. “Perhaps the most chilling question: If these deaths were ‘preventable,’ why weren’t they prevented?”
Fletcher said humanitarian staff were not only being killed but also “restricted, punished and delegitimized” and told where they could not go and who they could not help.
Fletcher said a prime example of this was the arbitrary detention of 73 UN staff and dozens of people working for non-governmental organizations in Yemen by Houthi rebels.
She said female humanitarian staff are prohibited from doing their jobs in Afghanistan. Israel is restricting the UN and other international organizations in Gaza, and drone strikes in Ukraine are forcing aid workers to retreat from the front lines.
“These trends are symptomatic of a lawless, belligerent, selfish and violent world, as well as declining funding for our lifesaving work,” Fletcher said.
He called on the UN’s 193 member states to meet the demands of the 2024 resolution to protect humanitarian workers and ensure accountability for crimes committed against them.
