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A record 907 aid workers were killed, injured or kidnapped in 2025, up from 833 the year before, the United Nations said on Wednesday, August 19. The figures come from the Aid Worker Security Database, a platform funded by Canada and Australia that compiles major security incidents affecting humanitarian staff, Al Jazeera reported.
Of that total, 350 aid workers were killed, slightly fewer than the record 387 recorded in 2024. Gaza was by far the deadliest place to work for the third year running, with 186 humanitarians killed there in 2025. Sudan came next. The UN Palestinian refugee agency has reported at least 393 of its own staff killed in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023, Al-Monitor reported.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher linked the rise to the spread of cheap, adaptable armed drones in conflict zones. In March, drone strikes hit Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least three people including a French aid worker. Aid convoys in Sudan and Ukraine have been struck repeatedly.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the level of violence appalling and urged states to respect the rules of war and hold perpetrators accountable. "Serving others has become more dangerous than ever," he said, ahead of World Humanitarian Day ceremonies at which flags flew at half-staff in New York and Geneva.
Israel, which is fighting Hamas in Gaza, has said it goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. Philippe Lazzarini, the former head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, said earlier this year that he was seeking a high-level panel to investigate staff deaths. Ramiz Alakbarov, the agency's humanitarian coordinator, wrote on X that humanitarian workers are not a target and that assistance must be fully facilitated.
The numbers land while funding for humanitarian operations is being cut. The European Commission said it would continue to meet its donor obligations, and added that every aid worker killed is a failure by the international community as well as a personal tragedy. Bushra Khalidi, global humanitarian policy lead at Oxfam, said the pattern amounts to an assault on humanitarian action itself.
The Aid Worker Security Database has tracked violence against humanitarian staff for two decades. Its 2024 count of 833 victims was itself a record at the time, and the 2025 figure surpasses it by 74. The 2026 total will be published next year.
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