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FACTBOX - How dangerous was 2015 for aid workers?

by Lin Taylor | @linnytayls | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Sunday, 14 August 2016 23:01 GMT

In a 2013 file photo, a man walks past the front gate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Jalalabad province. REUTERS/Parwiz

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There were 148 attacks recorded in 25 countries, a drop of 22 percent from 190 in 2014

By Lin Taylor

LONDON, Aug 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Attacks against aid workers fell in 2015 for a second year in a row as Afghanistan remained the most dangerous country for humanitarian workers, data showed on Monday.

In second place was South Sudan, with the highest number of attacks on civilian aid operations, the consulting group Humanitarian Outcomes said.

The group's Aid Worker Security Report showed that attacks on aid workers such as violent or sexual assaults, bombings, shootings and kidnappings dropped by more than 20 percent in 2015, compared with the previous year.

Here are some facts and figures on attacks on aid workers around the world in 2015:

  • There were 148 attacks recorded in 25 countries, a drop of 22 percent from 190 in 2014.
  • In 25 countries, 287 were victims of attacks, with 109 people killed, 110 injured and 68 kidnapped.
  • Afghanistan remained the most perilous country for aid workers, with 101 victims of attacks, followed by South Sudan with 42.
  • The deadliest year for humanitarian workers in the past five years was in 2013, when there were 475 victims of 265 attacks.
  • In 2015, the five conflict countries where most attacks occurred were Afghanistan, South Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
  • In Afghanistan, kidnapping was the most prevalent method of attack while shootings and assault were mostly used in South Sudan, and explosives were mainly used in both Syria and Yemen.

Humanitarian Outcomes has collected data on the topic since 1997.

(Source: Aid Worker Security Report 2016 by Humanitarian Outcomes) (Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Jo Griffin and Katie Nguyen.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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