A joint report issued by the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) in New York and the Overseas Development Institute in London cited that 122 aid workers were killed and over 260 were attacked in 2008 while conducting aid programs, making it the most dangerous year for aid workers.
A Reuters article quotes Abby Stoddard from CIC about this surge in danger for aid workers:
“It’s a very dangerous profession indeed and I don’t think that’s understood as much as maybe it should be. The numbers are quite startling and certainly the fatality rate exceeds that of U.N. peacekeepers.”
The largest numbers of attacks and fatalities have occurred in conflict zones where the humanitarian workers are operating, particularly Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan. The aid workers, who may be foreign-born or local people working for international agencies, are often targeted, “…not just because they were perceived to be cooperating with Western political actors, but because they were seen as part of a Western agenda.”
You can read the full report, “Providing Aid in Insecure Environments: 2009 Update- Trends in violence against aid workers and the operational response” here.
