The inherent risks facing international aid workers again came to the forefront a month ago, when a video surfaced showing ISIS militants threatening to execute David Cawthorne Haines, a 44-year-old British aid worker with Paris-based disaster relief group ACTED.
Haines was beheaded days later. His countryman and fellow humanitarian Alan Henning, a 47-year-old taxi driver working for an aid convoy in Syria, was next and a video showing his brutal murder was posted online last week. ISIS’ latest identified hostage is 26-year-old Peter Kassig, a former U.S. Army ranger who founded a nongovernmental organization for fleeing Syrian refugees. The fact that all three men were aid workers who had traveled to war-torn Syria did not surprise those versed in the dangers facing those working for such groups abroad.
Kidnapping and violence against foreign aid workers has gone from a rare horror story to an all-too-familiar refrain from those working in the world’s most dangerous locales. Even as security has improved for many aid organizations in recent years, deepening political crises in a few select hot spots stretching across the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America have made it increasingly risky for humanitarians operating in remote and unstable locations.
About the authors
Derek Kravitz
Derek Kravitz is a research scholar at New York’s Columbia University, working on a forthcoming book project about the Afghanistan war. In the past, Kravitz worked for The Associated Press and The Washington Post in Washington, D.C., and now in New York he’s a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and TheNewYorker.com. Kravitz is a former fellow at Columbia University's Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.
Colm O'Molloy
Colm O'Molloy is a multi-platform journalist based in Washington D.C., where where he reports on North American stories for BBC News and other outlets. He has extensive experience of working in conflict zones, including Nigeria and Afghanistan. O'Molloy conducted extensive research into global kidnap and ransom trends as a fellow at Columbia University's Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.
