More than 1,000 humanitarian workers have been killed across the globe in the past three years, nearly triple the death toll recorded in the previous three-year period, the United Nations reported Wednesday.
“This is not an accidental escalation — it is the collapse of protection,” said U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher during a Security Council briefing.
Of the 1,010 aid workers killed between 2023 and 2025, more than 560 died in Gaza and the West Bank, 130 in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine, and 25 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This marks a sharp increase from the 377 deaths recorded from 2020 to 2022.
The surge coincides with Israel’s war on Gaza, which began in October 2023. Although a ceasefire has been in place since October 2025, sporadic shootings and airstrikes have continued.
Last year alone, at least 326 aid workers were killed in 21 countries, while a record 383 died in 2024 while delivering food, water, shelter, and medical assistance. “They died in clearly marked convoys and on missions coordinated directly with authorities,” Fletcher said.
The Security Council was reviewing a resolution adopted in May 2024 that strongly condemned attacks on humanitarian personnel and demanded that all combatants protect them under international law.
Fletcher posed pointed questions to the 15-member body: Are the killings occurring because international law “is no longer convenient,” or because “it is more important to protect those designing, selling, supplying and firing lethal weapons?” He added, “Or is it because member states see these numbers as collateral damage, part of the fog of war? Or worse, are we now seen as legitimate targets?”
“Perhaps the most chilling question: If these deaths were ‘preventable’, why then were they not prevented?” he asked.
Fletcher warned that humanitarian staff are not only being killed but also “restricted, penalized and delegitimized” — prevented from accessing areas or assisting those in need.
The figures underscore mounting dangers for aid workers in conflict zones and raise urgent questions about the enforcement of international protections.
