Humanitarians increasingly pay the ultimate sacrifice, says aid community

As the aid worker community commemorated fallen colleagues at solemn ceremonies marking World Humanitarian Day (WHD) on Monday, frontline staff putting their lives on the line today highlighted the risks of providing help to vulnerable communities.

From ongoing emergencies in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, UN humanitarians shared with UN News what it means to be an aid worker, 21 years to the day since a bomb attack at the UN’s headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian workers, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq.

From Sudan, Leni Kinzli, Head of Communications and Spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Sudan, explained via Zoom that where people need help the most, “there is active fighting. There are airstrikes, bombings, shellings in places like Khartoum, the capital Al Fasher - the capital of North Darfur. “But then along the roads where you would have to transport food, there are so many checkpoints, so many different actors, armed actors involved, across different lines of conflict.”

In Gaza, after a rare mission to the north of the enclave at the weekend, Louise Wateridge, Spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) described how health workers “take their children to work with them because…they would rather die together than die separately.”

Describing the threat of “double tap” attacks on humanitarians in Ukraine, Dr Emanuele Bruni, the UN World Health Organization (WHO’s) Emergencies lead in Ukraine, recounted how one young medical worker died after sprinting to help people “not caring of the siren, not caring of the warning…(what) really breaks my heart is that this health worker, this young emergency medical system worker, was hit by the second tap; so he was hit by during his work for the people.”

Citing data that health workers are now “three times more prone to be attacked”, the WHO medic insisted that the increase in “double tap hits” since the beginning of 2024 was “absolutely hampering the response and also the healthcare status of the population as well as of the health system”.

Meanwhile at UN Geneva, to mark the Canal Hotel attack in Baghdad, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Director-General Tatiana Valovaya led tributes to the sacrifice of the victims of that attack and the thousands of aid workers who have died serving communities since then.

“Wherever there is human suffering, humanitarian aid workers are striving to elevate hardship and pain. On World Humanitarian Day, we once again salute their courage, their determination and their service to humanity,” she said, her comments reiterating the message of this year’s campaign which aims to confront the normalization of attacks on civilians, including humanitarians, along with impunity under international humanitarian law.

To mark the Baghdad attack – seen by many as the moment when humanitarians and the United Nations became a target like never before – family members, former colleagues of the fallen, other senior UN officials and Iraq’s Permanent Representative to UN Geneva also led tributes, in front of the precious remnants of the UN flag retrieved from the scene of the Baghdad bombing.

“Last year, 280 aid workers lost their lives in 33 countries making it the deadliest year on record for the entire global humanitarian community. And shockingly, this was twice as many deaths as the yearly average over the last 20 years,” said Ramesh Rajasingham, Head and Representative of UN aid office, OCHA, in Geneva, adding that “the protection of aid workers - and civilians in conflicts in general (was) at its lowest point in recorded history”.

At an earlier event at the Palais des Nations, the OCHA official led an associated #ActForHumanity moment of solidarity, to honour colleagues killed in action and resist the normalization of attacks against humanitarians.

UNRWA Chief of Staff Ben Majekodunmi, meanwhile, provided further sobering statistics at the WHD commemoration, noting that at least 298 humanitarian personnel have been killed from Palestinian and international NGOs and from the UN since the 7 October Hamas-led terror attacks on multiple locations in southern Israel. “At least 209 are UN staff, including 205 alone from UNRWA, as well as staff from WHO, from UNDP (UN Development Programme) and from UNDSS (UN Department of Safety and Security).”

Inside Gaza, at least 196 UNRWA premises have been damaged or destroyed, killing over 560 people sheltering inside, Mr. Majekodunmi continued. “A lesser-known statistic – horrendous – over 135 children of UNRWA staff have been killed.”

WFP’s Ms. Kinzli highlighted the daily risks aid teams face trying to reach vulnerable communities across front lines in Sudan: “Humanitarians are very much at risk in the current places where we're trying to provide assistance, especially as there's so many conflicts going on. And it's so incredibly dangerous to try to deliver aid when there are bombs and airstrikes.”

Nonetheless, the UN aid worker insisted that being an aid worker in the country after more than 16 months of conflict meant “basically never giving up. It's an incredibly difficult situation to be working in - especially for our Sudanese colleagues - and it just means never giving up and never giving up the belief and the hope that you are making a difference in people's lives, that the assistance that we're getting through does save lives - and supports people in the very darkest of times, as we're seeing in Sudan.”

Speaking from Gaza via Zoom, UNRWA’s Ms. Wateridge described the possibility of seeing a just-restored water pumping station being shut down again – and the deeply negative impact it would have on an already traumatized population: “We often wake up to new challenges, even just in Khan Younis. You know, we have just rehabilitated a water well; this is an achievement of the war: water to 100,000 people in the Khan Younis area, amongst all the rubble, amongst all the displacement. And now there are tanks in this area and now people are fleeing this area.”

Of her joint UN agency mission to deliver two fuel tankers to the north, the UNRWA spokesperson described the scenes there as “apocalyptic - it's like you can't fathom how much destruction your eyes can actually lay upon. In every direction you look front, you look right, you look centre, you look behind, it is complete and utter destruction.”

Latest UN data shows that last year was the deadliest on record for humanitarian workers; 2024 is on track to be even worse.

World Humanitarian Day – OCHA - UNRWA - WHO - WFP

TRT: 5 min 39s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 19 AUGUST 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

SHOTLIST

1. Exterior medium: destruction in northern Gaza, filmed 17 August 2024.
2. SOUNDBITE (English) – Leni Kinzli, Head of Communications and Spokesperson, WFP Sudan: “In the areas where people need help the most, there is active fighting. There are airstrikes, bombings, shellings in places like Khartoum, the capital Al Fasher - the capital of North Darfur. So that's the physical security threat. But then along the roads where you would have to transport food, there are so many checkpoints, so many different actors, armed actors involved, across different lines of conflict.”
3. Medium-wide, destruction in northern Gaza, filmed 17 August 2024.
4. SOUNDBITE (English) – Louise Wateridge, Spokesperson, UNRWA: “Our staff in the north as well our staff in the south - all over, really - they're telling us how, you know, the health workers, they take their children to work with them because they don't dare leave them at home, they don't dare be apart from their families in case somebody is killed in a strike and they're not together. They tell me - the colleagues told me - that they would rather die together than die separately.”
5. Medium-wide, destruction in northern Gaza, filmed 17 August 2024.
6. SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr Emanuele Bruni, WHO Emergencies lead in Ukraine: “Since the beginning of 2024, we have observed a lot of ‘double tap’ hits. It's basically data that workers are three times more prone to be attacked. This is absolutely hampering the response and also the healthcare status of the population as well as of the health system.”
7. Medium-wide, World Humanitarian Day ceremony at UN Geneva, speaker and participants.
8. Medium-wide, World Humanitarian Day ceremony at UN Geneva, speaker and participants.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Ramesh Rajasingham, Head and Representative of UN OCHA in Geneva: “Last year, 280 aid workers lost their lives in 33 countries making it the deadliest year on record for the entire global humanitarian community. And shockingly, this was twice as many deaths as the yearly average over the last 20 years.”
10. Medium-wide, World Humanitarian Day ceremony at UN Geneva, speaker and participants.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Ben Majekodunmi, Chief of Staff, UNRWA: “At least 298 humanitarian personnel have been killed from Palestinian and international NGOs and from the UN. At least 209 are UN staff, including 205 alone from UNRWA, as well as staff from WHO, from UNDP and from UNDSS.
12. Medium-wide, podium speaker and UN guard standing next to remains of remembrance bouquet, candles placed in front of UN flag from Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad on 19 August 2003.
13. Medium-close, lit candle in foreground, UN guard standing to rear.
14. SOUNDBITE (English) – Ben Majekodunmi, Chief of Staff, UNRWA: “At least 196 UNRWA premises have been damaged or destroyed, killing over 560 people sheltering inside. A lesser-known statistic – horrendous – over 135 children of UNRWA staff have been killed.”
15. Medium-wide, World Humanitarian Day ceremony at UN Geneva, speaker and participants.
16. SOUNDBITE (English) – Tatiana Valovaya, Director-General, UN Geneva: “Wherever there is human suffering, humanitarian aid workers are striving to elevate hardship and pain. On World Humanitarian Day, we once again salute their courage, their determination and their service to humanity.”
17. Medium lit candle flickering in front of commemorative boquet.
18. SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr Emanuele Bruni, WHO Emergencies lead in Ukraine: “After an initial attack, one emergency medical system worker was running quickly to the spot where the attack occurred. Not caring of the siren, not caring of the warning - and this is because it's the spirit of the workers and of the health workers - the unfortunate story which really breaks my heart is that this health worker, this young emergency medical system worker, was hit by the second tap; so he was hit by during his work for the people.”
19. Medium-wide, destruction in northern Gaza, filmed 17 August 2024.
20. SOUNDBITE (English) – Leni Kinzli, Head of Communications and Spokesperson, WFP Sudan: “Humanitarians are very much at risk in the current places where we're trying to provide assistance, especially as there's so many conflicts going on. And it's so incredibly dangerous to try to deliver aid when there are bombs and airstrikes and to get that assistance in is extremely dangerous.”
21. Medium, car with heavily damaged windshield in Gaza, piled high with mattresses and bedding and moving in traffic to Al Mawasi. Filmed 17 August 2024.
22. Medium, the vehicles of displaced people in slow-moving traffic in the direction of Al Mawasi. Filmed 17 August 2024.
23. SOUNDBITE (English) – Louise Wateridge, Spokesperson, UNRWA: “We often wake up to new challenges, even just in Khan Younis. You know, we have just rehabilitated a water well; this is an achievement of the war: water to 100,000 people in the Khan Younis area, amongst all the rubble, amongst all the displacement. And now there are tanks in this area and now people are fleeing this area.”
24. SOUNDBITE (English) – Louise Wateridge, Spokesperson, UNRWA: “The north is, it's apocalyptic, it's like you can't fathom how much destruction your eyes can actually lay upon. In every direction you look front, you look right, you look centre, you look behind, it is complete and utter destruction.”
25. Wide, UN vehicles moving through destruction in northern Gaza, filmed 17 August 2024.
26. SOUNDBITE (English) – Leni Kinzli, Head of Communications and Spokesperson, WFP Sudan: “Being an aid worker in Sudan means basically never giving up. It's an incredibly difficult situation to be working in, especially for our Sudanese colleagues and it just means never giving up and never giving up the belief and the hope that you are making a difference in people's lives, that the assistance that we're getting through does save lives - and supports people in the very darkest of times, as we're seeing in Sudan.”
27. Medium, participants at the World Humanitarian Day ceremony at UN Geneva.