Lack of respect for workers impedes help for needy people in crisis regions

On occasion of the publication of the latest figures, the Society for Threatened Peoples warns that a lack of respect for aid workers seriously impedes missions to help the needy people in many parts of the world: In 2012, a total of 274 helpers became crime victims – 67 of them got killed. On Monday, the project "Humanitarian Outcomes" had published the fourth report focusing on the safety of aid workers. The most dangerous countries mentioned are Somalia, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan and Pakistan. "Many international aid organizations and volunteers are worried about the continuously high number of murders and kidnappings," said the STP's Africa-consultant, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Tuesday. It was only on Wednesday of last week that the Head of the Sudanese charity organization Elsaqya was shot dead in Darfur (western Sudan).

"Even 64 years after the signing of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which – among other things – is supposed to ensure the protection of aid workers, there are several serious threats every week, because the conflict parties refuse to recognize their status of neutrality," said Delius. "They often become victims of criminal gangs who are trying to earn ransom money from kidnappings." To make matters worse, the authorities often interfere with the work of the aid agencies, in order stop supplies for the needy in crisis regions. For example, the "Humanitarian Aid Commission" (HAC) in Sudan has tried to stop aid workers from helping the refugee camps of Darfur and has also arbitrarily restricted or expelled aid agencies. In the conflict region of South Kordofan, the Sudanese authorities denied aid workers to access the tens of thousands of needy civilians for more than two years.

In Somalia, there had been so many attacks on aid workers that the organization "Doctors without Borders" decided to leave the country in August 2013. In Pakistan, Taliban fighters killed helpers who tried to carry out a vaccination initiative – and seven aid workers were shot dead in the north of the country on January 1, 2013. Helpers who have been working in Pakistan for a while are warning that the situation for aid workers has never been as dangerous as it is today.

During the past ten years, the number of kidnappings of aid workers has quadrupled. In 2012, a total of 92 workers were kidnapped. The most recent disappearances occurred in Syria in mid-October of 2013. A team of six employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross and a Syrian aid worker were kidnapped.