World Humanitarian Aid Day:in 2023, record number of operators killed

World Humanitarian Aid Day is celebrated on August 19th.In 2023, 280 aid workers were killed in war.

Humanitarian workers on the front lines of global conflicts are being killed in unprecedented numbers.OCHA, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs, said this on the occasion of World humanitarian day, or the World Humanitarian Aid Day, which falls on August 19th.

With 280 humanitarian workers killed in 33 countries, most of them civilians, 2023 marked the deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community.This high number represents a 137 percent increase compared to 2022, when 118 aid workers were killed.

More than half of the deaths have been registered in the first three months of the war in the Gaza Strip, between October and December 2023, mainly due to the air strikes conducted by the Israeli army.Many of the operators killed, in fact, were members of the United Nations Agency for the Relief and Employment of Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), towards which numerous countries, including Italy, they suspended humanitarian aid after accusations, never substantiated, of collusion with Hamas.

2024 risks being even more lethal

Unfortunately, 2024 is on the “right track” to become an even more lethal year.In fact, according to the provisional count of theAid worker security database, as of August 7, 172 humanitarian workers have already been killed.

In addition to the war in Palestine, 2024 is characterized by extreme levels of violence in Sudan and South Sudan, whose deaths contributed to the tragic death toll in both 2023 and 2024.Other hot fronts continue to be represented by Haiti, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Nepal, East Timor, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria and of course Ukraine.

"There normalization of violence against humanitarian workers and lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and extremely harmful to relief operations everywhere,” said Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.“Today, we reiterate our demand that those in power take action to end the violations against civilians and the impunity with which these atrocious attacks are committed.”

On this World Humanitarian Day, humanitarian workers and those who support their efforts around the world have organized events in solidarity and to highlight the effects of armed conflicts around the world.For the occasion, the hashtag was launched on social media #ActforHumanity.