Polish aid

This day was designated in memory of the 19 August 2003 bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 people, including the chief humanitarian in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly formalised the day as World Humanitarian Day.

Humanitarian workers help people affected by natural disasters or armed conflicts. Such work requires specific qualifications,  foreign language skills, and the ability to manage in an intercultural environment. The workers undertake all actions related to humanitarian aid, i.e. they search for missing persons, provide pre-hospital medical care, deliver life-saving drugs and medical equipment to the site, fight against fatal diseases such as cholera or Ebola, and vaccinate children.

Since 19th August 2003 more than 5000 humanitarian workers have lost their lives, have been injured, imprisoned, kidnapped, or encountered other difficulties preventing them from performing their duties. Last year surpassed all previous recorded years in the number of major attacks committed against aid workers, according to Humanitarian Outcomes Aid Worker Security Database Outcomes. A total of 483 aid workers were attacked, 125 killed, 234 wounded and 124 kidnapped in a total of 277 separate incidents. Despite the higher number of attacks and total aid workers affected, fewer aid workers were killed in 2019 (125) than in 2018 (131). 

 

Most of the attacks occurred in Syria, followed by South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and the Central African Republic (CAR). These were the same top five most dangerous contexts that accounted for over 60 % of all incidents worldwide in 2018, but in 2019 they were joined by Yemen and Mali, both of which saw a doubling of major attacks from the previous year. Attacks also occurred in a greater number of country contexts in 2019 (41) than in 2018 (35).

 

Syria for the first time topped the list as the country with the highest number of attacks (47) as well as the most lethal context for aid workers, with 36 fatalities, mostly from heavy weaponry, including aerial bombardment and explosives. South Sudan, which for the past five years had the highest number of incidents, saw a decrease in aid worker attacks last year as it continues to transition out of the violent civil conflict that began in 2013.

Aid worker attacks spiked suddenly in Cameroon, where general insecurity has been mounting since 2018 as Boko Haram and separatist forces have escalated hostilities. The security situation remains unstable in the Central African Republic and Afghanistan, both of which experienced slight increases in violent incidents. Attacks rose more steeply in the Democratic Republic of Congo, primarily driven by attacks on Ebola workers. Data research for this year’s Aid Worker Security Report has found that more than half (15) of DRC’s 27 reported attacks were committed against health workers responding to Ebola, and of these, a third were committed by community members acting out of fear and misperception of the disease and of the responders.

Humanitarian work is a full-time job, even "after hours". Unquestionably, the priority is to help. However, working abroad, humanitarian staff become ambassadors of Poland and Polish aid. Thanks to their perserverance and responsible decisions, they build the image of our country as a reliable friend who you can count on in times of need. Thank you.