Humanitarian aid workers belonging to United Nations organisations, PVOs / NGOs or the Red Cross / Red Crescent are among the list of protected persons under international humanitarian law that grant them immunity from attack by belligerent parties. However, attacks on humanitarian workers have occasionally occurred, and become more frequent since the 1990s and 2000s. In 2017, the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD) documented 139 humanitarian workers killed in intentional attacks out of the estimated global population of 569,700 workers. In every year since 2013, more than 100 humanitarian workers were killed. This is attributed to a number of factors, including the increasing number of humanitarian workers deployed, the increasingly unstable environments in which they work, and the erosion of the perception of neutrality and independence. In 2012 road travel was seen to be the most dangerous context, with kidnappings of aid workers quadrupling in the last decade, reaching more aid workers victims than any other form of attack. The foremost collector of data on attacks against humanitarian workers is the Aid Worker Security Database, which has strict parameters allowing for the data to be compared across the globe over time, producing useful analysis for the humanitarian, policy and academic community. Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) is another database that includes attacks on humanitarian workers in addition to other conflict-related incidents. Insecurity Insight produces monthly Aid in Danger reports that highlight attacks during the month from news media, the AWSD and ACLED.

Legal basis for the protection of humanitarian workers

The legal basis for the protection of humanitarian workers in armed conflicts is contained in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the related Protocols I and II of 1977. These treaties outline the rights and obligations of non-combatants who fulfill the criteria of protected persons during armed conflicts. These rights include the right to be treated humanely; to have access to food, water, shelter, medical treatment, and communications; to be free from violence to life and person, hostage taking, and humiliating or degrading treatment; and the prohibition against collective punishment or imprisonment. Protected persons include citizens and nationals of countries that are not a party to the conflict, except if such persons happens to be in the territory of a belligerent power, which maintains diplomatic relations with their home states. While the Geneva Conventions guarantee protection for humanitarian workers, they do not guarantee access of humanitarian workers to affected areas: governments or occupying forces may, if they wish, ban a relief agency from working in their area. Médecins Sans Frontières was created in 1971 with the express purpose of ignoring this restriction, by providing assistance to populations affected by the Biafran civil war despite the prohibitions of the government of Nigeria. In addition, the Geneva Conventions do not require that parties to the conflict guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers. The Conventions prohibit combatants from attacking protected persons, and they require occupying forces to maintain general order. However, the Conventions do not require that combating parties provide security escorts, for example, when other factions threaten the safety of protected persons operating in their area. In 2003, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1502 giving greater protection to humanitarian workers and treating attacks on them as a war crime. ICRC promotes a framework for Neutral Independent Humanitarian Action (NIHA) to enable differentiated role understanding.

Motives

The method of targeting foreigners through suicide bombings, IEDs and kidnappings (often closely associated with criminal and political actors) is strong evidence of at least some political motivations against aid workers. It is very hard often to precisely ascertain a motive; for instance, in 55% of the incidents recorded by the AWSD in 2008, the motive was described as ‘undetermined’. However, of those that were determined, political motivations have increased (29% of the determined total in 2003 to 49% in 2008) relative to economic motivations, or when the victim's status as an aid worker was only incidental. Afghanistan, as one of the most dangerous countries for humanitarian workers to operate in is influential in this changing dynamic; in 2007 61% of incidents were carried out by criminals and 39% by political opposition groups, but in 2008, 65% of incidents were the work of armed opposition groups. Aid workers can be targeted for political reasons both directly and by association. Sometimes the humanitarian organisation may be targeted for something that it has done or a statement it has made, or simply for the delivery of aid to a population, to whom others do not wish aid to reach. It can also be targeted as a result of being associated as an entity collaborating with the 'enemy' (a government, rebel group or foreign power). The dangers of being associated with specific governments or armed forces have further increased the determination of aid workers to be seen as separate, independent and neutral politically. However, evidence shows that this has little impact and instead that western aid agencies are perceived as an intrinsic part of the western 'agenda' and not merely associated with it. In the case of Afghanistan, with the notable exception of the International Committee of the Red Cross, it has been surmised that locals no longer make distinctions (as they once did) between organisations, e.g. those were working with the coalition force's Provincial Reconstruction Teams and those that did not. In remote areas, they sometimes represent the only accessible western target. Although empirical studies on aid worker insecurity have been scarce, two have been conducted in Afghanistan. Watts (2004) did not find evidence indicating heightened aid worker insecurity in provinces where the US military was present. Similarly, Mitchell (2015) was unable to discover a relationship between attacks against NGOs and their proximity to the US military or US-led PRTs respectively; however, his study did reveal that aid workers were more likely to encounter a greater number of security incidents in provinces with PRTs not led by the US.

Trends in risks faced by humanitarian workers

Attacks on health care

Among all attacks, those on health care are numerous. Hospitals, clinics and ambulances are attacked and health workers are injured or killed. As to the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition initiative there have been 973 attacks on health in 23 countries in 2018. Attacks usually either target wounded and sick individuals, health personnel, facilities or medical transport; facilities or medical emblems are misused. These attacks have a negative impact on the overall delivery of health care. Despite the immediate effects of deaths, injuries and the destruction of facilities, the long-term effects are often even more severe. Already weakened health systems, due to present conflicts, get targeted. That can lead to the collapse of entire health systems that are urgently needed in conflicts. The health systems are unable to cope with the situation, people have no access to health care and long-term public health goals are almost impossible to achieve. Many facilities have to close after attacks, hospitals run out of supplies and health projects, like vaccination campaigns, come to halt. Additionally, staff leave their posts, flee the region or country and international organizations withdraw their staff and/ or close projects. The general access to health facilities and care is restricted for people in need. The number of people affected indirectly is therefore even higher than the actual number of victims. Moreover, attacks have a negative impact on the psychological well-being of staff and affect their motivation as well as the quality of care provided by them.

List of major attacks on humanitarian workers

A full downloadable list of major incidents, from 1997–present, of violence against aid workers, can be found at Humanitarian Outcomes' Aid Worker Security Database.

1964

1993

July 5 – Scottish aid worker Christine Witcutt was shot and killed by a sniper in Sarajevo. October 25 – Danish aid worker Bjarne Vium Nielsen was killed in an attack on a humanitarian aid convoy. February 22 – Gunmen killed Valerie Place, an Irish nurse with the charity Concern.

1996

1997

November 26 – All foreign aid workers withdrew from the city following the abduction of two Italian aid workers in Mogadishu.

1998

July 24 – An Italian World Food Programme (WFP) staff member was killed in Bujumbura.

1999

2000

December 7 – Hundreds of people were killed after rebels destroyed a UNHCR centre. May 22 – Foreign aid workers pulled out of the island to escape growing inter-communal violence in Ambon. September 6 – Five UNHCR staff members, Samson Aregahegn (Supply Officer); Carlos Caceres-Collazo (Protection Officer); and Pero Simundza (Telecommunications Operator) and two Indonesians were killed when their office was attacked by militia in Atambua, Belu Regency, West Timor. January 4 – A CARE worker was shot dead in an ambush North of Mogadishu. January 31 – Attacks on a convoy of aid vehicles left 20 people dead.

2001

2002

February 28 – A Somali UN worker was kidnapped in Mogadishu hours after the region was declared too dangerous for permanent UN presence.

2003

March 24 – ICRC staff member Ricardo Munguia was shot and killed in an ambush north of Kandahar. He was working as a water engineer in Afghanistan and travelling with local colleague when their car was stopped by unknown armed men. He was killed execution-style at point-blank range while his colleagues were allowed to escape. The killing prompted the ICRC to temporarily suspend operations across Afghanistan. April 11 – Tom Hurndall was a British photography student and member of ISM who was killed by an IDF sniper. Hurndall was left in a coma and died nine months later. His killer Taysir Hayb was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for manslaughter and obstruction of justice but was released after serving six and a half years of his sentence. October 27 – An attack on the ICRC building killed at least 12 people in Baghdad.

2004

April 28 – Two Afghan aid workers and a soldier were killed in an attack in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar. June 2 – Five staff working for Médecins Sans Frontières were killed on the road between Khairkhana and Qala e Naw in Badghis Province, resulting in the complete withdrawal of MSF from Afghanistan. The names of the murdered staff were: Hélène de Beir, Willem Kwint, Egil Tynaes, Fasil Ahmad and Besmillah.

2005

2006

May — Two Afghan staff members from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and a driver were killed in a remote controlled bomb attack in Daraeem district. May 15 — Zmarai Azizi, a Afghan doctor working for Malteser International and his local driver Sirajuddin Noorzai, working for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) were killed and one aid worker was seriously wounded when gunmen attacked their car in the Korkh district of western Herat province. May 30 — Three female Afghan employees of Action Aid and their driver were killed by Taliban in the northern province of Jowzjan. September 12 —Yar Mohammed, an employee of UN-HABITAT, was killed and a second man was injured by gunmen in the western province of Farah, near the village of Shoorab. August 6 – 17 workers from the aid group Action Against Hunger were found murdered in Muttur. They were working on post-2004 tsunami reconstruction. There had been fierce fighting in the area for more than a week. (See Muttur massacre.)

2007

March 23 – 2007 Mogadishu TransAVIAexport Airlines Il-76 crash

2008

January 26 – An aid worker and her Afghan driver were kidnapped in Kandahar, they are presumed dead. August 13 – Three female International Rescue Committee (IRC) workers and their local driver were killed in an ambush as they drove back to Kabul from Logar Province. One was an American national. October 20 – An aid worker with SERVE Afghanistan was killed as she walked to work in Kabul. October 17 – A senior programme assistant for the World Food Programme (WFP) was shot and killed as he left a mosque in Merka. October 25 – A local worker with the aid agency Iida was killed as she returned from work in Gurilel.

2009

2010

August 7 – Ten men and women who were working for a Christian aid agency were murdered by the Taliban. Two Afghan interpreters, six Americans, a British woman and a German woman who had been running an eye clinic in the country died of gunshot wounds. Sabjullah Mujaheed, a Taliban spokesman, said later that they had been killed because they were missionaries and spies for the United States. December 24 — A German aid worker was killed and an Afghan colleague was injured on their way to Mazar-i-Sharif by Islamist militants (Taliban).

2011

December 23 – Two United Nations aid workers and a 3rd colleague were shot to death in Mataban, Hiran. The UN workers, who worked specifically for the World Food Program, had been monitoring the distribution of food and camps for internally displaced peoples. United Nations operations in Mataban were temporarily suspended.

2012

December 17 – Four female employees of a polio eradication program and one young female volunteer were killed in a planned attack by Islamist militants in Karachi and Peshawar.

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

December 04 – Dr. Tetsu Nakamura and five of his workers (Peace Japan Medical Services) have been attacked and killed on their way to work in Jalalabad. His staff died on the scene, he received treatment but died too. It was known that he was a possible target and he implemented security measures.

2020

2021

2022

2023

October 7 to November 2 – 72 UNRWA personnel were killed in Gaza. According to UNRWA, this is "the highest number of UN civilian aid workers killed in a conflict in such a short time, in recent history." November 11 — An employee of World Vision was killed in Warrap State. April to September 2023 – 257 attacks on health care have been recorded and over 50 health workers have been killed.

2024

September 26 – Islam Hijazi, director of Heal Palestine was killed by three Palestinian gunmen near a hospital in Khan Younis. November 17 – Of 109 aid trucks entering Gaza 97 were attacked and looted by Palestinian gunmen. Drivers had to unload trucks at gun point, aid workers were injured, and trucks were severely damaged. November 30 – Israeli strikes killed multiple aid workers from organizations including Save the Children, World Central Kitchen, and Gaza Soup Kitchen October 2023 to November 2024 – The UN reported that 333 aid workers were killed in the Israel-Hamas War, the highest number recorded in a single crisis. June 24 – The only maternity hospital in El Fasher was bombed by Rapid Support Forces killing Amna Ahmed Bakhit. July 1 – Three UN World Food Programme (WFP) trucks on their way to Central Darfur were attacked and looted by armed men. January to October – The deaths of 25 aid workers have been recorded in the Sudanese civil war (2023–present). September 12 – Three ICRC members were killed at an aid distribution site in Viroliubivka village. December 2023 to November 2024 – 378 attacks and 65 deaths have been recorded during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.