OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Nominated by: OneWorld editors

WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (OneWorld) - Dozens of humanitarian aid workers were targeted and killed around the world this year. In some countries, particularly severe surges of violence have forced aid organizations to reconsider or suspend life-saving and community building operations.

Stephen Vance. © CHF InternationalAmerican aid worker Stephen Vance and his Pakistani driver -- whose name remains private for the safety of his family -- were two of the most recent casualties. They were killed earlier this month by gunmen in northwest Pakistan.

Vance, who directed a job creation and workforce development program in Pakistan for the poverty alleviation group CHF International, was on his way to work when attackers blocked his vehicle in a narrow passageway and let out a barrage of bullets.

"Stephen strongly believed in the work we are doing in the challenging Tribal Regions of Pakistan," said CHF International Senior Vice President Judith Hermanson. "He had an unwavering drive to help people help themselves," added Vance's colleague William Holbrook.

Vance is survived by his wife and five children.

A report released by the United Nations last month documented 490 attacks on UN offices, convoys, and premises between July 2007 and June 2008, resulting in the deaths of 26 staff. "At least 63 workers with [non-governmental organizations] were murdered during the same period," adds the UN News Center.

In August, four humanitarian aid workers in Afghanistan were attacked and killed by the Taliban on their way home from the Paktia Province, where they were organizing a project to assist children with disabilities.

The murders of Canadians Jackie Kirk and Shirley Case, American Nicole Dial, and their Afghan driver Mohammad Aimal brought the total death toll of aid workers in Afghanistan to 23 this year. By mid-August, this was already eight more than died in all of 2007.

"Our hearts are wounded," wrote a colleague in Paktia. "We hosted them here and now their beautiful emotional words and conversation while departing from us and saying goodbye is still whispering in our ears."

(Clockwise from top left) Jackie Kirk, Mohammad Aimal, Shirley Case, and Nicole Dial. © International Rescue CommitteeThe four worked for the New York-based International Rescue Committee (IRC), which subsequently announced the suspension of its activities in Afghanistan, after 20 years of uninterrupted work in the country, while it "evaluates next steps."

A Taliban spokesman called news agencies to take credit for the attack, claiming: "We don't value their aid projects."

The car attacked by the Taliban was clearly marked as an IRC vehicle, underlining the purposefulness of the assault.

The July kidnapping of two French aid workers caused the group Action Against Hunger to temporarily suspend its operations in Afghanistan. The pair, who were part of a team providing aid to Afghans at risk of malnutrition, were released two weeks later.

Escalating insecurity for aid workers is forcing many groups to restrict the scale and scope of their operations, said an agency coordinating relief efforts among 100 different groups working in Afghanistan.

"Aid organizations and their staff have been subject to increasing attacks, threats, and intimidation, by both insurgent and criminal groups," said the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief. The group noted that June 2008 saw more worrisome incidents than in any other month in the last six years.

Aid organizations working in the Horn of Africa have endured similar strikes, jeopardizing their efforts to help millions of civilians cope with drought and malnutrition.

"Relentless" attacks on World Food Program (WFP) trucks have forced a major reduction in the distribution of food aid to people in the Darfur region of Sudan. By mid-September, more than 100 vehicles delivering WFP food assistance had been hijacked in Darfur, and 43 drivers were unaccounted for.

In April, WFP driver Mohammed Makki was on his first-ever delivery trip to Darfur, working for a WFP contract trucking firm delivering food assistance. He was traveling in a police-escorted convoy when his truck broke down 25 miles north of Nyala town. He went to Nyala to get spare parts and returned to fix the vehicle. Attackers shot and killed him and injured a guard who had accompanied him. He was the father of six children.

The situation is no safer in nearby Somalia. According to a report released in November by human rights monitor Amnesty International, at least 40 aid workers have been killed so far this year in the country, "putting at least 3 million Somalis at even greater risk of malnutrition and disease."

"These killings, abductions and threats mean that workers and rights defenders no longer enjoy the limited protection they previously held, based on their status in the community as impartial distributors of food and emergency services, or as advocates of peace and human rights," said David Copeman, Amnesty International's Somalia campaigner.

After the deputy director of the German charity Bread for the World was shot to death in his home in Mogadishu in July, the organization announced its decision to suspend all operations in Somalia.

"It is intolerable and incomprehensible that humanitarian workers striving to save lives and alleviate human suffering in one of the most difficult environments in the world are being targeted and killed," said Mark Bowden, who heads the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Mogadishu.

The UNDP has since withdrawn from the town of Baidoa, the home of Somalia's transitional parliament, due to rising safety concerns.

"We are faced with horrible questions," said CARE International's Somalia country director David Gilmour in a recent interview with Newsweek magazine. "Do we risk our staff or our partners' lives to deliver aid when there have been threats or when one of our staff has been abducted? Do we suspend or stop our operations when the Somali people who are relying on our aid to survive would not be able to receive it?

"We look for creative solutions to be able to meet our humanitarian objectives. Millions of people need emergency food and water, and we need access to get to these people."

* This story profiles one of ten finalists for OneWorld.net's People of 2008 award. Vote for your favorite, read more profiles, or tell us about other amazing people on OneWorld's People of 2008 page.

* Bookmark/RSS OneWorld.net's Latest Coverage of humanitarian aid issues worldwide, or the alert on the Global Food Crisis.

* Subscribe to OneWorld.net's Weekly Aid Digest

OneWorld.net writers Tara Fuller, Alison Raphael, and Jeffrey Allen contributed to this report.