More than 1,000 humanitarian workers have been killed worldwide in the past three years, the United Nations said April 8, nearly tripling the death toll from the previous three-year period. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the UN Security Council that the trend points to what he described as the “collapse of protection” for aid work carried out in war zones.
Fletcher said the UN recorded the deaths of more than 1,010 humanitarian workers from 2023 to 2025, with the biggest concentration in Gaza and the West Bank, where he said more than 560 aid workers were killed. He also cited Sudan, saying 130 were killed there, along with 60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine and 25 in Congo.
The surge in deaths occurred during the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023, the UN said, adding that a ceasefire has been in effect since October 2025 though shootings and airstrikes have continued. Fletcher told the Security Council that while the ceasefire has reduced some fighting, aid workers have still faced lethal attacks and other forms of interference.
Fletcher compared the recent period with the earlier three years, saying 377 humanitarian workers were killed from 2020 to 2022. He said last year alone, at least 326 aid workers were recorded as killed in 21 countries, and he said that in 2024, a record 383 were killed in global hotspots while distributing food, water, shelter and medicine.
Fletcher told the council that the victims died in “clearly marked convoys” and on missions coordinated directly with authorities. The Security Council’s meeting, he said, was tied to a resolution it adopted in May 2024 that strongly condemned attacks on humanitarian workers and UN personnel and demanded that all combatants protect them under international law.
Fletcher asked the 15 members of the Security Council whether the killings reflect a failure to treat international law as binding, or whether protecting humanitarian workers has become secondary to those who design, sell, supply and fire lethal weapons. He said, “This is not an accidental escalation — it is the collapse of protection,” and he pressed the council to address whether member states see the growing toll as “collateral damage” or as justification for targeting humanitarian personnel.
In his remarks, Fletcher described additional obstacles beyond deaths, saying humanitarian staff are also being “restricted, penalized and delegitimized,” including being told where they can’t go and whom they can’t help. As examples, he pointed to Yemen, where he said UN staff and others working for nongovernmental organizations are being arbitrarily detained by Houthi rebels, and he said that in Afghanistan, female humanitarian staff are banned from doing their jobs.
Fletcher also said that in Gaza, Israel restricts the UN and other international organizations, and that in Ukraine drone attacks have forced aid workers back from the front line. He said these trends, along with what he described as the collapse in funding for lifesaving aid work, are symptoms of what he called “a lawless, bellicose, selfish and violent world.”
Fletcher concluded by challenging the UN’s 193 member nations to uphold the May 2024 resolution’s demands, including the requirement to protect humanitarian workers and ensure accountability for crimes against them. He framed the question of prevention as urgent, saying, “Perhaps the most chilling question: If these deaths were ‘preventable’, why then were they not prevented?”