World Humanitarian Day 2026: Aid workers under fire as armed drones transform war-making

2025 set another grim record for violence against aid workers, with 907 colleagues killed, injured or kidnapped, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today on World Humanitarian Day.

While the death toll decreased slightly to 350 last year, the overall level of violence did not ease: 322 aid workers survived attacks that left them injured while 235 were kidnapped, according to Humanitarian Outcomes’ Aid Worker Security Database.

With 186 humanitarians killed, Gaza remained the deadliest context for the third year running, followed by Sudan with 71 killed.

So far in 2026, 82 aid workers have been killed, 97 injured and 39 kidnapped across the world.

“More than 1,000 aid workers have been killed in just three years and that is utterly unacceptable,” said Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. “But just calling it out will not protect the next aid worker. States must uphold international humanitarian law and use every tool to protect civilians and our colleagues. And for those who break the rules, there must be real consequences.”

Of particular concern is the proliferation of cheap and adaptable armed drones that are putting lethal power into ever more hands and sending more explosive weapons into towns and cities.

In Sudan, armed drones caused 80 per cent of civilian deaths in the first four months of 2026, hitting markets and health facilities.

In Ukraine, drones killed 80 civilians in April this year alone, while in the Russian Federation, civilians have been killed and civilian infrastructure damaged because of drone attacks.

In Colombia, attacks using weaponized drones quadrupled between 2024 and 2025.

Humanitarians are increasingly in the crosshairs of armed drones. In March this year, an aid worker was killed in a drone strike on a residential building in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In just one week in May, four humanitarian convoys were hit in Ukraine.

"Weaponized drones have become the new face of an old danger: the deliberate or reckless destruction of civilian life,” Fletcher said. “The technology may change, but the laws of war do not.”

This year’s global campaign, Act for Humanity, spotlights aid workers who have been killed, through interviews with their families. Behind every statistic is a family whose world has been torn apart.