What is happening to humanitarian workers?
Aid workers risk their lives every day to reach children caught up in conflict, disaster and displacement. They are protected under international humanitarian law and should never be attacked, detained or stopped from doing their jobs. Increasingly, they are.
More than 1,010 humanitarian workers were killed between 2023 and 2025 - one of the deadliest three-year periods on record for the humanitarian community. In 2024 alone, 383 aid workers were killed, the highest annual total ever recorded at the time. A further 326 were killed in 2025 across 21 countries.
The overwhelming majority of those killed are not international staff, but people working to help their own communities. 97% of aid workers killed, injured or abducted in 2025 were national or local staff - the doctors, drivers, nurses and logisticians who are often first to respond after a disaster, and who stay long after international attention has moved elsewhere.
Why is this happening?
Humanitarian workers are protected under international humanitarian law, the body of rules that governs how warring parties must treat civilians and those helping them. In practice, that protection is being ignored. Aid convoys are struck, hospitals and clinics are damaged, and humanitarian premises are attacked directly. In other cases, access is blocked through bureaucratic obstruction rather than open violence - visas delayed, checkpoints closed, permits withheld - which can be just as deadly for the children waiting on the other side.
Three conflicts account for most of the recent rise: Gaza, Sudan and South Sudan. In Gaza and the West Bank alone, more than 560 humanitarian workers have been killed since 2023, according to the same UN figures - more than half the three-year global total. Two Save the Children staff members were among those killed in Gaza in 2025.
Accountability has not kept pace with the violence. The laws needed to protect civilians and aid workers already exist. What is largely missing is enforcement, and real consequences for those who break them.
What does this mean for children?
When aid workers cannot safely reach communities, children are usually the first and hardest hit. They are not simply smaller adults - their developing bodies and minds mean they are often harmed more quickly, more severely, and for longer when essential services stop.
A blocked road or an attacked convoy is not an abstract statistic to a family waiting for it. It can mean a child goes without therapeutic food during the exact window when malnutrition becomes life-threatening. It can mean a health clinic stays closed and a routine vaccination is missed. It can mean a child protection worker cannot reach a child who has been separated from their family.
In Sudan, access restrictions have prevented life-saving assistance from reaching children facing extreme hunger. In Gaza, attacks on humanitarian operations have disrupted food, healthcare and child protection services at a time of acute need. In Haiti, rising insecurity has made it harder for children and families to reach the support they rely on. The consequences of these disruptions rarely end when the immediate crisis does - lost healthcare, lost schooling and lost protection can shape a child's whole life.
What needs to change
Save the Children is calling for three things:
International humanitarian law must be applied with children's specific vulnerabilities in mind at every stage of a conflict, reducing irreparable harm and strengthening protection for all civilians.
Parties to conflict must respect that law, allow rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access, and protect both humanitarian workers and the infrastructure - hospitals, water systems, aid convoys - that children depend on.
States must use every diplomatic and legal tool available to protect aid workers, prevent attacks and hold those responsible to account, because impunity only invites further attacks.
What we're doing
Despite the risks, Save the Children and our partners continue working in some of the hardest-to-reach places in the world.
This year, we aim to reach over 17 million people, including 10 million children, with life-saving support. Doing that safely depends on our staff and partners being protected, the rules of war being respected, and safe access being maintained - which is why we keep pushing publicly and diplomatically for exactly that, rather than settling for expressions of concern.
Frequently asked questions
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Why are aid workers being attacked?
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Aid workers are increasingly caught up in direct attacks on humanitarian convoys, health facilities and premises, as well as bureaucratic obstruction that blocks access even without violence. Three conflicts - Gaza, Sudan and South Sudan - account for the majority of recent deaths. International humanitarian law prohibits these attacks, but enforcement and accountability have not kept pace.
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How many aid workers have been killed?
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More than 1,010 humanitarian workers were killed between 2023 and 2025, according to figures reported to the UN Security Council in April 2026. 2024 remains the single deadliest year on record, with 383 killed; 326 were killed in 2025 across 21 countries.
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Who is most at risk?
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National and local staff bear the overwhelming majority of the risk. 97% of aid workers killed, injured or abducted in 2025 were local or national staff working in or near their own communities, often as first responders.
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How does this affect children specifically?
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When humanitarian access is blocked or aid workers are attacked, children lose access to food, healthcare, education and protection services at the moments they need them most. Because children's bodies and minds are still developing, interruptions to essential services can affect them more quickly, more severely and for longer than adults.
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What is Save the Children calling for?
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We are calling for international humanitarian law to be applied with children's needs in mind, for parties to conflict to protect humanitarian workers and allow safe access, and for states to use their diplomatic and legal tools to hold violators to account.
