Last year, a minimum of 350 humanitarian workers lost their lives globally, marking another distressing year for violence against aid workers, as reported by the United Nations. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) disclosed that the death toll in 2025 slightly decreased from the previous year, which saw a record high of 387 aid workers killed worldwide. Additionally, 322 aid workers sustained injuries in attacks, and 235 were abducted, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized in a video message on World Humanitarian Day that the peril faced by those serving others has escalated significantly. The Gaza Strip retained its position as the most dangerous context for aid workers for the third consecutive year, with 186 fatalities recorded last year during Israel’s conflict in the Palestinian enclave, as highlighted by OCHA.
In Sudan, where a civil war has been ongoing between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since 2023, 71 aid workers lost their lives in 2025. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, expressed strong disapproval, stating that over 1,000 aid workers had been killed in just three years, deeming it entirely unacceptable.
OCHA reported that in the current year, 82 aid workers have already been killed, with 97 injured and 39 abducted. The UN also sounded the alarm regarding the increasing use of low-cost armed drones in conflict zones. These drones have been utilized to target markets and healthcare facilities in Sudan, resulting in 80% of civilian casualties in the initial four months of 2026. Ukraine also witnessed at least 80 civilian deaths from drone attacks in April this year.
Fletcher warned that weaponized drones represent a new iteration of an age-old threat: the deliberate or reckless endangerment of civilian lives.
