World Humanitarian Day

This year’s Aid Worker Security Report comes at a major inflection point for international humanitarian assistance and during an alarming new peak of violence against humanitarians. The 2025 edition – our 15th since data tracking began – was almost not produced after the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD), lost its US government funding when the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was dismantled. The funding crisis now rocking the sector comes on top of escalating conflicts and a steep erosion of respect for humanitarian norms and the laws of war by state actors – amplified in some places by public smear campaigns against aid organisations. The conflicts in Gaza and Sudan continue to drive the greatest numbers of aid worker casualties, but incidents were on the rise in other contexts as well, with historically high numbers seen in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Lebanon, Nigeria, Somalia, Ukraine, and Yemen. The loss of funding, security...

  A continuing surge in violence  Attacks against aid workers continued to climb steeply in 2024 (and in the first half of 2025), along with the number of victims and deaths. The AWSD recorded an all-time high of 568 major violent incidents against aid workers (killings, kidnappings, and woundings) in 2024 – a 36% increase over 2023. It was the second consecutive year to set records for both the number of victims and fatalities, which rose by 37% and 31% respectively. Major violent incidents occurred in 40 countries in 2024, an increase from 33 in 2023. When arrests and detentions by state authorities are included, the number of countries rises to 42, underscoring both the geographic spread of insecurity and the growing role of state actors in obstructing humanitarian operations.  The violence showed no signs of letting up in the first half of 2025. As at 30 June, the provisional data suggests the numbers are on track to break records again, barring dramatic shifts in the...

  On 20 January 2025, the incoming US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to freeze almost all US foreign relief and development funding. The unexpected move upended the aid sector, as organisations and programmes funded through USAID abruptly ceased operations, affecting millions of aid recipients around the world. Over the ensuing months, the administration cancelled over 80% of USAID-funded aid projects, as the 63-year-old institution was effectively dissolved and its staff dismissed, with the small remainder absorbed into the US State Department. By far the largest humanitarian donor, representing over a third of all humanitarian contributions in most years, the US historically served as the backbone of the international humanitarian aid system. The slashing of this mainstay funding, followed by cuts from other large humanitarian donors such as Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands, has begun to unravel global response capacity, and will leave millions withou...

  The steep reductions in humanitarian programming following the defunding have altered the security landscape for aid agencies, exposing new vulnerabilities and amplifying existing ones. In many contexts, the abrupt withdrawal of services has created resentment among affected people, while downsizing has increased exposure for the organisations and individuals that remain. These dynamics are compounded by the erosion of acceptance – driven in part by harmful narratives, misinformation, and disinformation – that is increasingly shaping threat perceptions and behaviours towards aid actors. Rising tensions following abrupt closures and loss of vital services  Provisional data for 2025 includes a small number of major security incidents with evidence of a direct link to defunding-related programme closures or downsizing. The true number is likely higher; many local organisations are unwilling to report such incidents, and others fall outside AWSD’s inclusion criteria because no a...

  Amid the funding cuts, humanitarian organisations have pursued a range of adaptations to sustain operations and manage security risks with fewer resources. Some changes were already under consideration before the funding crisis, but the urgency of the current environment has accelerated their adoption. The merging of security and access departments – previously viewed as distinct functions – is becoming more common, with security specialists now expected to engage directly in negotiations and outreach. Interviewees noted that security risk management has always involved elements of access facilitation, but the current shift offers an opportunity to operationalise the access role and better integrate it with day-to-day security functions. Resource pooling and co-location are emerging as practical cost-saving measures. In Burkina Faso, an organisation that could no longer maintain its offices offered space to others, resulting in several organisations now sharing the same building...

  Humanitarian access, operational security, and resourcing are all inseparably linked. For that reason, the record-setting levels of violence against aid workers in 2024, followed by the unprecedented US funding freeze in 2025, have created overlapping crises: loss of critical services for communities, heightened risks for aid workers , and erosion of the professional and data capacities that underpin safe and principled operations. The evidence gathered shows that the security risks emerging from programme cuts are not confined to high-profile conflict zones. They span contexts from Gaza to Colombia, with incidents ranging from community protests to targeted attacks on staff. In several cases, downsizing has left national aid actors exposed to disproportionate risk, while misinformation and weaponised narratives have further undermined acceptance. Without decisive action by donors and diplomatic actors , the current patterns point to a future where humanitarian aid operations ...