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Attacks on Aid Workers Hit Record in 2008

It's more dangerous to distribute aid than fight as a UN peacekeeper

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 6, 2009 2:33 PM CDT

(Newser) – A shocking number of fatal attacks on international aid workers made 2008 the most dangerous year yet to perform such work, Reuters reports. Last year, 260 workers were attacked on the job, 122 fatally; the majority were working in Somalia, Darfur, or Afghanistan. The Center on International Cooperation’s study notes that it is currently more dangerous to be an aid worker than a member of a UN peacekeeping force.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

An UN peacekeeper pats an animal during a patroll at Al Salam refugee camp, outside the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan, March 21, 2009. (AP Photo)

Displaced Sudanese women seek medical treatment at the clinic of the expelled aid group International Rescue Committee, March 26, 2009. (AP Photo)

This 2008 file photo provided by French humanitarian organization "Medecins Sans Frontieres" (Doctors Without Borders), shows people lining up for a measles vaccination in Sudan. (Medecins Sans Frontieres)

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We did not expect the jump in the past three years that we saw. There seems to be an alarming trend. It's a very dangerous profession and I don't think that's understood as much as it should be.
- Abby Stoddard, Center on International Cooperation

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Attacks on Aid Workers Hit Record in 2008