Aid workers face systematic restrictions: they are detained, intimidated and denied access to those in need. Over the past three years, more than a thousand aid workers have died around the world. Humanitarian assistance
In 2025, 326 humanitarian workers were killed in armed conflicts in 21 countries. Such data, speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, was given by Deputy Secretary-General and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher. According to him, the current situation is a consequence of “not random escalation, but the collapse of the defense system.”
Fletcher stressed that more than half of the deaths over the past three years have occurred in Gaza and the West Bank, where more than 560 people have died. 130 aid workers were killed in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan and 25 each during the conflict in Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In total, 1,010 aid workers have died in three years, and the numbers continue to rise. “This is not because we are careless with our lives, but because the parties to conflicts are careless with ours,” he said.
During his speech, Fletcher accused states of allowing aid workers to increasingly die in UN-marked convoys and along pre-agreed routes. “These deaths were preventable, so why weren’t they prevented?” he said.
Aid workers also face systematic restrictions, including detention, intimidation and denial of access to those in need, Fletcher said. He cited examples: 73 UN staff and dozens of NGO workers remain detained in Yemen; in Afghanistan and Yemen, women are prohibited from working in humanitarian organizations; in Gaza, Israel restricts the activities of UN agencies; in Myanmar, due to fighting and blockade, aid cannot reach more than thousands of people.
According to the UN Deputy Secretary-General, the killing of aid workers is leading to the fact that clinics are closing, food is not reaching its intended destination, and millions of people are losing hope.
Tom Fletcher concluded his speech calling on the Security Council to act “with much greater determination.”