Movement rocked by more aid worker deaths

Since the beginning of the year, a total of 17 Movement workers or volunteers have lost their lives in attacks by warring parties in various parts of the world. In early February, six staff members of the ICRC were killed in Afghanistan when their clearly marked convoy was attacked on its way to a distribution in Jawzan province. Two other staff members were still missing at the time of writing. Also in February, two members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were killed along with two people who had come to receive aid at a distribution centre in the town of Hamadaniya. Several others were injured. In January, two Mexican Red Cross paramedics were murdered by armed gunmen while carrying out humanitarian duties in Ixtapaluca, Mexico. Also in January, an accidental air strike on a camp for displaced people in Rann, Nigeria killed more than 70 civilians, including six aid workers from the Nigerian Red Cross Society. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement strongly condemned the attacks insisting that fighting parties take all necessary steps to ensure that humanitarian workers are never targeted.

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