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STORY: UN / PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS
TRT: 04:48
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 08 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN Headquarters
08 APRIL 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“In 2025, at least 326 humanitarians were recorded as killed across 21 countries, bringing the total number of humanitarians killed in three years to over 1,010.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“Of those over 1000 deaths, more than 560 were in Gaza and the West Bank, 130 in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine and 25 in DRC. That number compares to 377 recorded as killed globally over the previous three years. Almost tripling the death count. This is not an accidental escalation - it is the collapse of protection”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“These humanitarians were killed while distributing food, water, shelter and medicine. They died in clearly marked convoys and on missions coordinated directly with authorities. And too often, they were killed by member states of the United Nations.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“Humanitarians know we face risks. It is the nature of our work, the places we operate. These deaths are not because we are reckless with our lives. They are because parties to the conflict are reckless with our lives. So, on behalf of over a thousand dead humanitarians and their families, we ask why.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“I normally conclude with three asks of this Council. But it seems insulting to over one thousand colleagues killed to echo back to you the commitments of SCR 2730: protection, integrity, accountability. We come here not to remind you of these commitments, but to challenge you to uphold them. Because if we cast these hard-won principles aside, the integrity of this Council, and the laws we are here to protect - die with our colleagues.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilles Michaud, Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, United Nations:
“Regrettably, all these perpetrators are rarely held accountable. They are rarely named and shamed, let alone prosecuted.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilles Michaud, Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, United Nations:
“This is not the right forum to describe the range of measures we have implemented to keep colleagues safe. But it is the right place and time to tell you: we have stretched the security system to its limit.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilles Michaud, Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, United Nations:
“We ask you to take real, consequential measures against anyone, any party, any group, any Member State that compromises the safety and security of women and men whose work saves lives.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilles Michaud, Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, United Nations:
“We ask you to invest, politically, financially, legally, in the safety and security of these women and men, the one noble cause that should unite us all.”
20. Wide shot, Security Council
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Elyse Nicole Mosquini, Permanent Observer / Head of Delegation to the United Nations, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC):
“We are losing our humanity in war. Every attack on humanitarian personnel that passes without consequence allows this insidious pattern to continue. Each such attack signals to others that the lives of aid workers are expendable, and that the rules of war and the protections they are designed to provide are disposable. Excellencies, this cannot continue. Parties to armed conflict cannot keep fighting wars without limits. This is a legal, moral and humanitarian imperative: People who help others in war and humanitarian crises must not be killed. They must not be targeted.”
22. Wide shot, Security Council
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said that the number of humanitarian worker deaths has tripled over the past three years and is not an accidental escalation — “it is the collapse of protection.”
Addressing the Security Council today (8 Apr) Fletcher reported that in 2025, at least 326 humanitarians were recorded as killed across 21 countries, bringing the total number of humanitarians killed in three years to over 1,010.
According to the Emergency Relief Coordinator, of those over 1000 deaths, more than 560 were in Gaza and the West Bank, 130 in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine and 25 in DRC.
“That number compares to 377 recorded as killed globally over the previous three years. Almost tripling the death count. This is not an accidental escalation - it is the collapse of protection”
He stressed, “These humanitarians were killed while distributing food, water, shelter and medicine. They died in clearly marked convoys and on missions coordinated directly with authorities. And too often, they were killed by member states of the United Nations.”
He continued, “Humanitarians know we face risks. It is the nature of our work, the places we operate. These deaths are not because we are reckless with our lives. They are because parties to the conflict are reckless with our lives. So, on behalf of over a thousand dead humanitarians and their families, we ask why.”
He said, “I normally conclude with three asks of this Council. But it seems insulting to over one thousand colleagues killed to echo back to you the commitments of SCR 2730: protection, integrity, accountability. We come here not to remind you of these commitments, but to challenge you to uphold them. Because if we cast these hard-won principles aside, the integrity of this Council, and the laws we are here to protect - die with our colleagues.”
Also addressing the Council, Gilles Michaud, UN Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, noted, “Regrettably, all these perpetrators are rarely held accountable. They are rarely named and shamed, let alone prosecuted.”
He highlighted, “This is not the right forum to describe the range of measures we have implemented to keep colleagues safe. But it is the right place and time to tell you: we have stretched the security system to its limit.”
He said, “We ask you to take real, consequential measures against anyone, any party, any group, any Member State that compromises the safety and security of women and men whose work saves lives.”
He also said, “We ask you to invest, politically, financially, legally, in the safety and security of these women and men, the one noble cause that should unite us all.”
Elyse Nicole Mosquini, Permanent Observer and Head of Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to the United Nations, said, “We are losing our humanity in war. Every attack on humanitarian personnel that passes without consequence allows this insidious pattern to continue. Each such attack signals to others that the lives of aid workers are expendable, and that the rules of war and the protections they are designed to provide are disposable. Excellencies, this cannot continue. Parties to armed conflict cannot keep fighting wars without limits. This is a legal, moral and humanitarian imperative: People who help others in war and humanitarian crises must not be killed. They must not be targeted.”
