More aid workers have been killed in 2024 than in any other year, UN says
Source: ABC News
November 22, 2024, 5:56 AM
GENEVA -- More aid workers, health care staffers, delivery personnel and other humanitarians have been killed in 2024 than in any other single year, the United Nations reported Friday. Bloodshed in the Middle East has been the single-biggest cause of the 281 deaths among humanitarians globally this year, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“Before the year is even over, 2024 has become the deadliest on record for humanitarian personnel worldwide,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said. He told reporters in Geneva the figure surpassed the previous record of 280 deaths for the whole of last year.
Humanitarians "are working courageously and selflessly in places like Gaza, Sudan, Lebanon, Ukraine and so on. They show the best humanity has to offer, and they are getting killed in return — in record numbers,” he said. “These numbers will send shockwaves around the humanitarian community, especially on the front lines of the response,” he added.
The U.N. said the figures come from the Aid Worker Security Database, a U.S.-funded project run by a Britain-based group called Humanitarian Outcomes.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/aid-workers-killed-2024-year-116124474
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