UN laments 'unacceptable' toll of 350 aid workers killed in 2025

The number of aid workers killed worldwide in 2025 reached 350, with the most fatalities in Gaza and Sudan, the United Nations said Monday, calling attacks on humanitarians "unacceptable."

The death toll, however, was slightly lower than that of 2024, when 377 aid workers were killed.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited the figures from the research and advisory group Humanitarian Outcomes in a statement marking World Humanitarian Day.

Some 186 humanitarians were killed in Gaza -- the deadliest place for aid workers for the third year running -- followed by Sudan with 71 killed.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) physicians move through the isolated red zone to monitor patients at an Ebola Treatment Center in Munigi, Congo. By Jospin Mwisha (AFP)

"More than 1,000 aid workers have been killed in just three years and that is utterly unacceptable," Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said in the statement.

"But just calling it out will not protect the next aid worker. States must uphold international humanitarian law and use every tool to protect civilians and our colleagues," he said. "And for those who break the rules, there must be real consequences."

Since the start of 2026, 82 more aid workers have been killed, 97 injured and 39 abducted worldwide.

Displaced Palestinians receive food from a charity kitchen at a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip in April 2026. By Eyad Baba (AFP)

OCHA voiced particular concern over the proliferation of armed drones "that are putting lethal power into ever more hands and sending more explosive weapons into towns and cities."

In Sudan, armed drones caused 80 percent of civilian deaths in the first four months of 2026, hitting markets and health facilities, the statement said, also noting casualties from drone attacks in the Russia-Ukraine war.

"Weaponized drones have become the new face of an old danger: the deliberate or reckless destruction of civilian life," Fletcher said.