April 13, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Last year 260 aid workers for international charities and the United Nations were either killed, kidnapped, or injured in violent attacks, making it the most dangerous year for humanitarian efforts since 1987, when such incidents started to be tracked.
According to a new report by the Overseas Development Institute, in London, and the Center for International Cooperation, in New York, attacks on aid workers, especially kidnappings, have increased sharply since 2006. The three most dangerous countries were Somalia, Afghanistan, and Sudan, which accounted for 60 percent of the reported assaults.
By comparison, 206 charity and U.N. employees were victims of violent attacks in 2007.
Some observers have said the rise in attacks is in part due to the increasing number of humanitarian workers worldwide. But the report said the growing “humanitarian footprint” does not explain the rise.
“When measured against the total number of aid workers in the field, the number of victims has outstripped the expanding aid-worker population,” it says.
OMB Watch, a government watchdog in Washington, blames the increase on the U.S. military’s expanding role in relief and development efforts, which it says leads to confusion about the political independence of aid organizations.
What do you think? What do you attribute the rise to?
