September 9, 2024
Killings of local humanitarian workers in conflicts around the world must provoke the same outrage as international aid workers harmed in conflict, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Tuesday.
The number of aid workers killed has spiked this year largely due to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
Nearly 300 humanitarian aid workers, more than two-thirds of them U.N. staff, have been killed since the conflict began in October.
Doctor Sally Yen’s organisation Forum for the Future shared a report with me that said that somebody born in 2020 is likely to experience eight times the number of heatwaves.
IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said 30 local Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers have been killed on duty, while wearing the organisations’ insignia, since January.
Seventeen of those were killed in the Palestinian territories and eight in Sudan, he said, calling for countries and international bodies to do more to protect them.
“They come from their communities where they also work, but unfortunately, it is they who are being hurt and killed most” yet those incidents get less attention, he said.
“When they get killed in the mission, when they were fully identified, and there is not a type of outcry that is needed to change the needle, I do feel a sense of helplessness.”
Chapagain cited an analysis of media reports that showed coverage of attacks on humanitarians was overwhelmingly of incidents involving international staff.
“I believe that outrage was helpful to bring the issue to the table, but what happened was then it dropped – it dropped massively,” he said, adding that sustained attention was needed to change the situation.
REUTERS
