Violence against health workers in Pakistan has captured international headlines as recently as this week – sad yet unsurprising news for a country that has seen attacks on aid workers for years.
Pakistan ranked as the second-most dangerous place for aid workers in 2012, according to research by Humanitarian Outcomes. The data hasn’t been verified yet, the organization says, but it is available online and is expected to find its way into an annual report to be published later this year.
Pakistan, of course, has already seen its share of violence in 2013: Several NGO workers were killed in an ambush on Newyear’s Day in a district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
To date, however, Afghanistan continues to be the most dangerous place for aid workers, topping the list for the third year in a row. In 2012, the country saw 44 attacks against aid workers, down from 51 in 2011.
South Sudan, number three on the list of most dangerous places for aid workers, saw 15 attacks in 2012. The world’s youngest nation entered the list in 2011, placing second.
Rounding out the dubious top 10 list for 2012 are Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and the Philippines. Honduras and the Central African Republic dropped out of the top 10 last year, although more recently, conflict in the CAR has flared up again, posing renewed security threats against aid workers. The United Nations and the International Rescue Committeepulled out some staff members from the country in late December.
Violence against aid workers comes in various forms, among them the use of explosives, which was not a common cause of aid worker casualties until the mid-2000s, according to the Aid Worker Security Report 2012.
Ambush attacks, however, remain most prevalent. In December, for instance, an attack against health workers involved in a vaccination campaign in Pakistan was launched by gunmen on motorbikes.
Read our last DevTrivia.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
