Over 1,000 Aid Workers Killed in Three Years

Shaun Hughes (left), WFP Country Director for Palestine, walks amid massive destruction in Gaza.

In 2025, at least 326 humanitarian workers were recorded as killed across 21 countries, bringing the total number of aid workers killed over the past three years to more than 1,010. We recognise, grieve and honour each of our 326 colleagues, and dedicate the work ahead to their memory.

Of the more than 1,000 deaths, over 560 occurred in Gaza and the West Bank, 130 in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine and 25 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

That figure — more than 1,000 — compares with 377 humanitarian workers recorded as killed globally in the previous three years, nearly tripling the death toll. This is not an accidental escalation; it is a collapse of protection.

These humanitarians were killed while distributing food, water, medicine and shelter. They died in clearly marked convoys and during missions coordinated directly with authorities. Too often, they were killed by United Nations member states.

Humanitarians understand the risks we face. It is the nature of our work and the environments in which we operate.

These deaths are not the result of recklessness on our part. They are the result of recklessness by parties to conflict.

So, on behalf of more than a thousand dead humanitarians and their families, we ask: why?

Is it because the world no longer believes in Security Council Resolution 2730, in which there was such moral urgency about ending violence against humanitarians?

Is it because international humanitarian law, shaped by a generation of wiser political leaders for times such as these, is no longer convenient?

Is it because it is seen as more important to protect those designing, selling, supplying and using lethal weapons — including drones, cyber tools and artificial intelligence — than to protect us?

Is it because those killing us feel no consequences for their actions? How many have been prosecuted? How many leaders have resigned? In how many cases has the UN Security Council demanded investigations? Has outrage become selective?

Or is it because member states see these numbers as collateral damage, part of the fog of war? Worse still, are we now being seen as legitimate targets?

And perhaps the most chilling question of all: if these deaths were preventable, why were they not prevented?

More than 110 member states have chosen to act together through the political declaration on the protection of humanitarian personnel. Yet across multiple crises, humanitarians are not just being killed.

Our work is being restricted, penalised and delegitimised. We are told where not to go and whom not to help. We are harassed or arrested for doing our jobs. Lies are spread about us, and those lies carry deadly consequences.

And, of course, when humanitarians are harmed, aid often stops. Clinics close. Food does not arrive.

In Yemen, 73 UN staff and dozens of NGO personnel remain arbitrarily detained by the Houthis. In Afghanistan and Yemen, women humanitarian workers are prevented from carrying out their duties.

In Gaza, Israel has restricted the work of UN agencies and international NGOs. In Myanmar, insecurity and access constraints have cut off aid to more than 100,000 people in a single month.

In Ukraine, drone attacks have forced aid groups to scale back operations in frontline communities.

In all these cases, the killing of humanitarians too often leads to the death of hope for millions who depend on them.

These trends, along with the collapse in funding for lifesaving work, are symptoms of a lawless, bellicose, selfish and violent world. The killing of humanitarians is part of a broader assault on the UN Charter and on international humanitarian law.

International humanitarian law was never, and is not now, an academic exercise.

In honour of our colleagues who have been killed, and in solidarity with those still risking their lives, we urge the international community to act with far greater conviction, consistency and courage.

I would normally conclude with three appeals to this Council. But it seems insulting to more than one thousand slain colleagues to merely repeat the commitments of Security Council Resolution 2730: protection, integrity and accountability.

We come here not to remind you of those commitments, but to challenge you to uphold them.

Because if these hard-won principles are cast aside, then the integrity of this Council — and the laws we are here to protect — will die alongside our colleagues.