The Duty to Protect Those Who Extend a Helping Hand to Others

Dr Inas Mohamed Ahmed
Yesterday, Wednesday 19 August, the world marked World Humanitarian Day and honoured humanitarian workers worldwide. The commemoration dates back to the bombing that took place on 19 August 2003, when an attack on a hotel in Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and injured more than 150 people. The attack was carried out by a truck loaded with a large quantity of explosives, which crashed into the building and destroyed substantial parts of it.
These workers had been engaged in humanitarian work, providing aid and relief in Iraq. The bombing later became known as the United Nations Headquarters bombing, as the United Nations had been using the hotel as its main headquarters in Baghdad since the 1990s. The incident had far-reaching global repercussions and a lasting impact on the security precautions the United Nations subsequently adopted around the world.
Five years later, the United Nations adopted a resolution declaring 19 August of every year World Humanitarian Day, in honour of humanitarian workers and in remembrance of those who lost their lives while carrying out their duties.
The occasion is marked in solidarity with humanitarian workers, who face the risks of injury, detention, abduction and, all too often, death while performing their duties. The day honours their dedication, commemorates their lives and legacy, and renews the call to protect those working in the humanitarian field worldwide.
Anyone following the situation of humanitarian workers will find that, by 2025, the number of those killed had reached 326 across 21 countries, while more than 136 people had been abducted and more than 240 injured.
One striking feature of these statistics is that the overwhelming majority of humanitarian workers are national staff — that is, they are not foreigners in the countries where they were killed. They account for as much as 96 per cent of those killed.
International humanitarian law prohibits attacks against humanitarian workers, requires that they be respected and protected, and obliges parties to a conflict to facilitate the delivery of relief and humanitarian assistance to civilians. But has international humanitarian law actually succeeded in protecting humanitarian workers, or have these obligations remained merely words on the pages of international conventions?
Under Rule 31 of customary international humanitarian law, humanitarian relief personnel must be respected and protected. The International Committee of the Red Cross considers this rule applicable regardless of whether the conflict is international or non-international. The protection covers all forms of attack, including killing, abduction, hostage-taking, arbitrary detention, assault, ill-treatment and other abuses. Humanitarian workers also benefit from their civilian status, meaning the provisions and conventions protecting civilians apply to them as well.
If a humanitarian worker is a civilian providing assistance to civilians, has not participated in hostilities, and is deliberately targeted with the intention of killing them, such an act constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute. It should also be noted that any attack on or deliberate targeting of personnel, facilities or vehicles engaged in humanitarian missions under the United Nations Charter likewise constitutes a war crime.
At the same time, the law does not limit the protection of humanitarian workers merely to preventing attacks against them. It extends to enabling them to carry out their work of providing humanitarian and medical assistance to civilians, because this is the very essence of their role.
Along the same lines, in May 2024 the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2730 on the protection of United Nations personnel and humanitarian workers, stressing the need to investigate violations committed against them and hold those responsible to account.
In April 2026, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, warned of the growing risk of attacks, noting that nearly 1,000 humanitarian aid workers had been killed over the preceding three years. He pointed out that a time gap exists between condemning an attack and investigating it, and another gap between an investigation and bringing those responsible to justice. Between these stages lies a vast humanitarian, legal and political distance.
The law exists, but protection must produce a tangible result on the ground. It therefore makes little sense for condemnation to begin only after a humanitarian worker has been killed. Protection must begin by preventing attacks against them while they are at work and enabling them to perform their duties. Protection should be measured by what happens when a right is violated, not by what follows after the violation.
Sudan: One of the World’s Most Dangerous Places for Aid Workers
At the national level, Sudan ranks second in the world after Gaza, according to United Nations reports, as one of the most dangerous places for humanitarian workers. More than 165 national aid workers, most of them Sudanese, have been killed since the outbreak of war in mid-April 2023.
Sudanese humanitarian workers have also suffered attacks by the terrorist militia on humanitarian and medical aid convoys and facilities serving civilians. Aid workers have been killed, beaten, abducted, arrested, arbitrarily detained and injured as a result of hostilities.
Globally, according to statistics from the Aid Worker Security Database, a platform funded by Canada and Australia that compiles data on incidents involving humanitarian workers, 907 humanitarian workers were killed, injured or abducted during 2025, compared with 833 in 2024. These figures have drawn global attention to the danger posed by drones targeting humanitarian convoys around the world, including, naturally, the terrorist militia’s drone attacks on locations where civilians are present.
Anyone observing the war in Sudan will see a pattern of widespread violations of human rights, amid indifference, muted responses and a failure to take international measures against what civilians and humanitarian workers are enduring. There have been no sufficiently deterrent sanctions against the rebel militia for the crimes it is committing, while the country is also facing a displacement crisis regarded as the worst and most severe in the world, compounded by inadequate funding for humanitarian assistance.
We therefore extend our appreciation and gratitude to everyone who has provided, or helped provide, humanitarian assistance to our country. We also pay tribute to the young Sudanese men and women who joined emergency response rooms and takayas, playing a heroic role in providing aid, relief and humanitarian assistance to our people since the outbreak of the war.
Many of them have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We have every right, on this day, to preserve the memory of their lives, sacrifices and national service.

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