20 years after deadly attack on UN in Iraq, humanitarian workers remain committed to help, #NoMatterWhat, despite growing risks

Men wearing UN security uniforms stand next to a wreath with their heads bowed down in respect.

UN staff pay respect to fallen colleagues and aid workers at a ceremony on the occasion of World Humanitarian Day (on 19 August) at the UN headquarters in New York. 18 August 2023. OCHA/Paolo Palmero

Ahead of World Humanitarian Day on 19 August, the United Nations today warned that 2023 is set to become another year of high numbers of aid worker casualties.

So far this year, 62 humanitarian workers have been killed in crises around the world, 84 have been wounded and 34 kidnapped, according to provisional data from the Aid Worker Security Database research team at Humanitarian Outcomes. Last year’s annual death toll reached 116.

South Sudan has ranked highest in insecurity for several consecutive years. Forty attacks on aid workers and 22 fatalities have been reported as of 16 August.

Sudan is a close second, with 17 attacks on humanitarians and 19 fatalities reported so far this year. This toll surpasses numbers not seen since the height of the Darfur conflict between 2006 and 2009.

Other aid worker casualties have been recorded in the Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia and Ukraine. Last year, 444 aid workers were attacked. The previous year, 460 humanitarians were attacked, resulting in 141 deaths.

This year’s World Humanitarian Day also marks 20 years since the 2003 suicide bomb attack on the UN headquarters in the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 UN staff. Some 150 more people – local and international aid workers helping to reconstruct Iraq – were also injured on that dark day.

“World Humanitarian Day and the Canal Hotel bombing will always be an occasion of mixed and still raw emotions for me and many others,” said the UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths.

“Every year, nearly six times more aid workers are killed in the line of duty than were killed on that dark day in Baghdad, and they are overwhelmingly local aid workers. Impunity for these crimes is a scar on our collective conscience. It is time we walk the talk on upholding international humanitarian law and tackle impunity for violations.”

Despite the security and access challenges, humanitarians of all stripes are campaigning this year to highlight their continuing commitment to deliver for the communities they serve, no matter who, no matter where and #NoMatterWhat.

In the face of skyrocketing humanitarian needs, the UN and its partners aim to help almost 250 million people in crises around the world – 10 times more people than in 2003.