19″Aug”2024″ Today marks World Humanitarian Day. Last year was the deadliest on record for humanitarian workers globally, and 2024 is set to be worse. The following quote is attributed to ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric:
“Attacks that harm or kill civilians, including humanitarian workers and medical personnel, have become tragically frequent in armed conflicts.
It is unacceptable that civilians—or those dedicated to helping them—should face such danger. Whenever humanitarians are attacked, civilians also suffer the consequences, as aid efforts are hindered by the worsening security conditions.
Every day, the staff and volunteers of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement work on the frontlines of conflict. It is intolerable that they are targeted, yet far too many have been. In 2023-24 alone, six ICRC staff members have been killed, and 14 others wounded.
This is the reality for millions in vital need of healthcare not just in Sudan but elsewhere in the world as well.
In Gaza, multiple attacks on hospitals have killed and injured hundreds, including health workers and displaced people seeking refuge in what were thought to be safe havens
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) city of Goma, doctors and nurses have been murdered while trying to care for displaced people. In Ukraine, the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital was targeted in an air raid, killing one doctor and one hospital worker and injuring 16 people, including seven children.
In Pakistan, a bomb killed police officers deployed to protect polio vaccination workers
On this World Humanitarian Day, I stand in solidarity with civilians caught in conflict and with the staff and volunteers across the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. I thank them for their unwavering dedication to helping those in need.”
The violent upheaval tearing Khartoum apart has forced many Sudanese people to flee for safety. The war’s impact on the capital’s healthcare system has made it even more urgent for many families to leave.
Attacks on medical facilities in Khartoum in 2023 led to a shortage of drugs throughout the capital, which meant that many chronically ill Sudanese could no longer find the medicines they needed.
In 2023 alone, WHO recorded 1,520 attacks on healthcare, resulting in the deaths of at least 750 patients and health workers, and 1,250 injuries.
So far this year, more than 700 attacks have also taken place. Dire as these numbers are, they likely underestimate the true scale of the problem
In Gaza, like in Ukraine, Sudan, the DRC, Haiti and beyond, those who fall leave behind grieving families and communities. Parties to conflicts are failing humanitarian and health workers and the people they serve.
On August 19, when we mark World Humanitarian Day, we must confront the intensifying attacks on aid workers and attempts to normalise them.
On this day, I reiterate my condemnation of all forms of violence, threats and attacks against humanitarians, including health workers.
I, also join fellow UN and humanitarian leaders in calling on all countries to take collective responsibility and action to ensure full protection for humanitarian workers.
We must provide humanitarian heroes the protected space they need to save lives