Remarks by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at World Humanitarian Day 2025 Commemoration Ceremony.
Thank you, Director-General [Tatiana Valovaya]. Dear survivors, families – especially the families – Excellencies and colleagues: We are here to grieve and honour those we have lost. They are the best of us. Humanitarians carry hope where there is despair. They are selfless in a selfish world. They seek to mend what others seek to break. They bring humanity where there is inhumanity. Yet from that day in Baghdad till now, the best of us are under attack. Last year, more than 380 humanitarians were killed – not dead, killed – the highest ever recorded. Hundreds more wounded, kidnapped, detained. In Gaza, 520 aid workers – mostly UNRWA staff – killed since October 2023, the deadliest place for humanitarians for the second year running. This number doesn’t even touch the hundreds of staff who have lost family members, like my colleague Saed Al Ghamri, whose wife Ola was killed in our guesthouse. In Sudan, 60 colleagues lost their lives – over double the year before. These include my colle...
