Gaza and Sudan are among the most dangerous areas for humanitarian work.

August 19, 2026 (PEN) The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that Gaza and Sudan topped the list of the most dangerous humanitarian work areas in the world, while 2025 set a new record for the number of victims of violence against aid workers, with 907 killed, injured and kidnapped.

In a statement marking World Humanitarian Day, the office explained that Gaza remained the most dangerous place in the world for humanitarian workers for the third year in a row, after 186 aid workers were killed there, while Sudan came in second with 71 workers killed.

OCHA noted that the number of aid workers killed worldwide decreased slightly in 2025 to 350, but the overall level of violence did not decrease, as 322 humanitarian workers were injured in various attacks, while another 235 were kidnapped, according to the Humanitarian Outcomes database.

The office noted that the danger would continue throughout 2026, pointing to the killing of 82 aid workers, the injury of 97 others, and the kidnapping of 39 since the beginning of the year.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said that the killing of more than 1,000 aid workers in three years was "completely unacceptable," adding that "mere condemnation will not protect the next aid worker," and calling on states to abide by international humanitarian law and impose consequences on its violators.

The statement highlighted the increasing use of cheap and customizable armed drones to target populated cities and towns.

In Sudan, OCHA noted that drones caused 80% of civilian casualties during the first four months of 2026, by targeting markets and health facilities.

Fletcher said that drones have become "the new face of an old danger, namely the deliberate or reckless destruction of civilian lives," stressing that "the laws of war do not change" despite technological advancements.

Every year on August 19, the world commemorates World Humanitarian Day, which was adopted by the United Nations in 2008 to honor the lives of 22 humanitarian workers killed in the bombing of the Canal Hotel in Baghdad in 2003, including the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello.