UN agencies and humanitarian groups marked World Humanitarian Day (WHD) on Tuesday with urgent calls for governments to safeguard aid workers, warning of unprecedented levels of violence that left hundreds dead and injured worldwide.
Data from the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) shows that 383 aid workers were killed in 2024, the highest on record. This year, the Aid Worker Security Database has already documented 265 deaths as of mid-August.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said violence against healthcare workers has reached alarming levels in 2025.
“Since the beginning of this year, WHO has verified 821 attacks on health across all regions of the world, with 1,121 deaths and 645 injuries among health workers and patients across 16 countries or territories so far,” spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.
Ukraine has been the hardest hit, with 325 verified attacks leaving 10 dead and 114 injured. The occupied Palestinian territory recorded 304 incidents with 61 deaths and 165 injuries. Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Myanmar have also seen deadly assaults on medical staff and facilities.
“Let’s be clear, every single attack on health is one too many,” Lindmeier said, urging governments to adopt legal and policy measures that would prevent such violence and protect access to care.
The UN human rights office echoed that appeal. Quoting High Commissioner Volker Turk, spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said: “We will never stop insisting that governments work together to ensure that they provide full humanitarian access to people in need, and that there is accountability for grave violations of international humanitarian law.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) noted that 18 of their staff and volunteers have been killed this year alone while working in Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Iran, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Courage is not protection, and dedication does not deflect bullets,” the Red Cross bodies said in a joint statement, adding that disinformation portraying aid workers as “legitimate targets” worsens the risks they face. They urged governments to endorse the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel.
On social media, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General Amy Pope reminded the public that aid workers “don’t take sides – they save lives. Yet, they’re too often left unprotected. Their safety is non-negotiable.”
World Humanitarian Day, marked every Aug. 19, commemorates staff killed or injured in the line of duty and honors those who continue to deliver life-saving assistance. The date was set by the UN in 2008 in memory of the 2003 bombing of its Baghdad headquarters, which killed 22 humanitarian workers, including senior UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.