This statement comes after news that a record 280 people were killed worldwide in 2023.
The UN has warned that the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could lead to even more such deaths this year.
"The normalization of violence against aid workers and lack of accountability is unacceptable, unconscionable and extremely damaging to humanitarian operations everywhere," said Joyce Msuya, acting director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in a statement on World Humanitarian Day.
"With 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries last year, 2023 marked the deadliest year in the history of the global humanitarian community." This is a 137% increase on 2022, when 118 aid workers died," OCHA said in the statement.
It referred to the Aid Worker Safety Database, which has been tracking such data since 1997.
The UN said 163 of the 2023 deaths were aid workers killed in Gaza in the first three months of the war between Israel and Hamas, mainly in air strikes.
South Sudan, wracked by civil strife, and Sudan, where a war between two rival generals has raged since April 2023, are the next deadliest conflicts for aid workers, with 34 and 25 deaths respectively.
The top 10 also includes Israel and Syria with seven deaths each; Ethiopia and Ukraine with six deaths each; Somalia with five deaths; and four deaths each in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In all conflicts, most deaths were among local rather than visiting foreign personnel.
"We demand an end to impunity so that perpetrators are brought to justice," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Despite the "outrageously high number" of aid worker deaths in 2023, OCHA said 2024 "may be on track to produce an even deadlier outcome."
As of 9 August, 176 aid workers had been killed worldwide, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.
Since October, more than 280 aid workers have died in Gaza, most of them employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Against this backdrop, the heads of numerous UN humanitarian organizations and agencies have sent a letter to UN member states calling for an end to the "era of impunity."
"Attacks that kill or injure civilians, including humanitarian and health personnel, are devastatingly common," said the letter, signed by groups including the World Food Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"Yet despite widespread condemnation, serious violations of the rules of war too often go unpunished," it added.
Each year, the United Nations marks World Humanitarian Day on August 19, the anniversary of the 2003 attack on its Baghdad headquarters.
The bombing killed 22 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN special representative in Iraq, and wounded about 150 local and foreign aid workers.
Marking World Humanitarian Day, the United States said "we owe aid workers our gratitude for their service and our commitment."
"We reaffirm our strong commitment to this work and continue to call on international partners to join us in stepping up their contributions to meet the growing humanitarian needs around the world," National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in the statement, which made no mention of the record number of casualties. | BGNES
