The United Nations secretary-general Tedros Ghebreyesus has called on world leaders to do more to protect people caught up in conflict.
He’s also called for all concerned to join a campaign to show that civilians are #NotATarget to mark World Humanitarian Day.
It comes 15 years after an attack on the UN in Baghdad left 22 humanitarian workers dead.
More than 4,000 aid wroers have been killed, injured, detained or kidnapped since then.
“That is an average of 300 fellow humanitarians killed, detained or injured every year,” said Ghebreyesus.
In the first quarter of 2018, some 149 attacks on aid workers were recorded: 221 workers were killed and 261 injured.
“Civilians in conflict zones also continue to be killed and maimed, deliberately or in indiscriminate attacks. Last year, the United Nations recorded the deaths or injuries of more than 26,000 civilians in attacks in just six countries: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen.”
“Around the world, conflict is forcing record numbers of people from their homes, with over 65 million people now displaced. Children are recruited by armed groups and used to fight. Women are abused and humiliated. As humanitarian workers deliver aid and medical workers provide for those in need, they are all too often targeted or treated as threats.”
