Aid workers under fire as drones reshape warfare

Record Violence Against Aid Workers

The United Nations humanitarian office has issued a stark warning: 907 aid workers were victims of violence in 2025, with 350 killed, marking the second-highest toll ever recorded. The data, compiled in the Humanitarian Outcomes' Aid Worker Security Database and funded by the Australian and Canadian Governments, shows that 322 aid workers were also injured and 235 kidnapped during the year.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the level of violence "appalling," saying in a statement that "serving others has become more dangerous than ever." He also warned that "disinformation is eroding trust. Humanitarian funding is being cut. And humanitarian access is being restricted," urging member states to uphold the rules of war and hold perpetrators accountable.

Gaza Remains Deadliest Context

Gaza remained the deadliest place for aid workers in 2025 for the third consecutive year, with 186 killed, 68 per cent by aerial bombardment. Despite a ceasefire declared last October, the violence continued. In Sudan, a record 71 aid workers were killed, mostly from small arms fire, marking the fifth consecutive year of rising fatalities there. Other high-insecurity contexts include Ukraine, Ethiopia, Syria, Haiti, Chad and Cameroon.

So far in 2026, 82 aid workers have been killed, 97 injured and 39 kidnapped worldwide.

Drones: The New Face of an Old Danger

Tom Fletcher, UN Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that "more than 1,000 aid workers have been killed in just three years and that is utterly unacceptable." Speaking virtually from Ukraine, Fletcher described an incident where he and his team had to run for cover from a drone attack, calling weaponised drones "the new face of an old danger: the deliberate or reckless destruction of civilian life."

Drones are increasingly prevalent in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and Somalia, with technology that is getting cheaper and easier to access. In Sudan, armed drones were responsible for 80 per cent of civilian deaths in the first four months of 2026. In Ukraine, drones killed 80 civilians in April, and four humanitarian convoys were hit in a single week in May. In Colombia, attacks involving weaponised drones quadrupled between 2024 and 2025. In March, a drone strike on a residential building in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killed an aid worker.

Fletcher acknowledged that drones can also be used for good, such as delivering vaccines or identifying survivors, but called their use in conflict "inhumane and reckless." He called on member states to uphold international humanitarian law and seek accountability, adding: "If the world has become so transactional and selfish and inward-looking that member states are no longer able or prepared to do this work, then we really are in a grim dystopian reality."

Voices from the Field

Emmanuel Madragule, a humanitarian driver with more than two decades of experience, survived an armed-group attack during a field mission in eastern DR Congo in June 2024. He said: "I cannot leave my colleagues like this. I have to stay with my colleagues." His story highlights the courage of aid workers who continue their missions despite the dangers.

Ramiz Alakbarov, humanitarian coordinator of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, said on X that "humanitarian workers are not a target and humanitarian assistance must be fully facilitated." Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's former chief, said earlier this year he was seeking a high-level panel to investigate staff deaths.

The European Commission stated that "every aid worker killed is not only a personal tragedy; it is also a failure by the international community to uphold its most basic commitments." Oxfam's Bushra Khalidi said: "We're witnessing an assault on humanitarian action itself."

Background: World Humanitarian Day

The UN General Assembly designated 19 August as World Humanitarian Day in late 2008, five years after the terrorist bombing of the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 UN staff members, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the then Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq. On the 23rd anniversary of the attack, Guterres paid tribute to the fallen staffers, remarking that their legacy "lives on in every humanitarian worker delivering assistance amid conflict, disaster and despair."

He also noted that international humanitarian laws meant to protect civilians and humanitarian workers are being violated "with alarming frequency and impunity."

According to OCHA, 2025 set a new record for violence against humanitarian workers, with 712 incidents recorded—350 killed, 322 injured, 235 kidnapped and 280 detained. This year alone there have been 136 major incidents. The rise is stark: from 300 reported attacks in 2022 to 471 in 2023 and 634 in 2024. Fletcher said: "Behind those grim numbers... are names. They are colleagues, they are our friends, they are families, and they are the best of us."