Relief workers under fire

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon honored relief workers around the world on Tuesday, praising their "heroic" work and warning that attacks on aid staff "hinder the ability of people in desperate need to receive life-saving assistance."

Violence against aid workers has climbed to record heights, according to figures released by a UN-commissioned study, conducted by Humanitarian Outcomes. In 2013 alone, 155 relief workers were killed and 171 were gravely wounded. Another 134 foreign aid staff were kidnapped. This total of 460 affected relief staff represents a 66-percent increase from the previous year.

"One aid worker killed in the line of duty is too many," said Valerie Amos, the UN's emergency relief coordinator. "Nurses, engineers, logisitcians and drivers for example all take great risk doing their work in sometimes extremely dangerous and difficult circumstances."

US Secretary of State John Kerry said World Humanitarian Day should "remember the men and women sho pay the ultimate price as a result of their devotion."

Based on preliminary figures, 2014 is shaping up to be just as deadly; 79 aid workers have been killed in conflict zones thus far, already more than the whole of 2012.

"On World Humanitarian Day, we renew our commitment to life-saving relief efforts - and we remember all those who died serving this noble cause. Last year, more humanitarian workers were kidnapped, seriously injured or killed than ever before. This is an outrage," wrote Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement on the UN website.

Remembering UN losses in Iraq

World Humanitarian Day began in 2009 to honor relief workers who have lost their lives. It is held on August 19th, the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq's headquarters at Baghdad's Canal Hotel. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello, tipped as a future candidate for secretary-general, was among 21 UN staff members killed in the bombing. International law stipulates that any attacks on humanitarian workers may be considered a war crime.

The UN called a special session to discuss how to better protect aid workers, especially local ones who often take on the most dangerous missions.

"Local staff take on more responsibility for accessing dangerous areas, while international staff remain in secure compounds," said Masood Karokhail, from Liaison Office, an Afghan non-governmental organization set up in 2003. Eighty-one of the aid workers killed in 2013, more than half the global total, were operating in Afghanistan. The majority of attacks took place when staff were traveling by road.

At a time when NGOs are under increasing pressure to send more workers to war zones, local staff are being hit with a "transfer or risk" that puts them at the bottom of an "artificial hierarchy", Karokhail continued.

Today most violence against aid staff is concentrated in five countries: Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan, Pakistan and Sudan. The recent escalation of the conflicts in Syria and South Sudan was cited as a probable contributor to sharp increase in fatalities. Attacks on UN facilities in the Gaza Strip last month also drew international outrage.

es/msh (AFP, AP, dpa)