GENEVA: The Aid Worker Security Database, a platform funded by Canada and Australia that compiles major security incidents affecting aid workers, indicates that approximately 907 humanitarian aid workers were killed, injured, or kidnapped during 2025, compared to 833 in the previous year.
Although the number of fatalities fell slightly to 350 from a record 387 in 2024, the overall number of workers targeted rose to its highest level.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the level of violence as appalling and called on governments to uphold international humanitarian law and ensure that those responsible for attacks are held accountable.
“Serving others has become more dangerous than ever,” Guterres said.
The UN’s warning comes ahead of World Humanitarian Day commemorations, during which flags were scheduled to be flown at half-mast at UN headquarters in New York and Geneva in memory of humanitarian workers who lost their lives while carrying out their duties.
Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, highlighted the growing threat posed by the proliferation of inexpensive drones, which can be deployed in increasingly flexible ways during conflicts.
Drone attacks in March struck the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least three people, while humanitarian convoys in Sudan and Ukraine also came under repeated attack.
The Aid Worker Security Database identified Gaza as by far the most dangerous location for humanitarian workers in 2025, with 186 aid workers killed, followed by Sudan.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said at least 393 of its staff members had been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7, 2023.
Bushra al Khalidi, Oxfam’s global humanitarian policy officer, called for stronger protection for humanitarian personnel, warning that the violence was increasingly targeting humanitarian operations themselves.