Aid Worker Security Report 2021: Crime Risks and Responses in Humanitarian Operations

Violence against aid workers in 2020 claimed 484 individual victims, 117 of whom died, making 2020 the worst year on record for the second year in a row. } Incidence of attacks remained at an all-time high despite constraints on humanitarian programming caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and took an even greater toll than usual on national aid workers. } South Sudan, Syria and Democratic Republic of Congo had the highest numbers of attacks. } Armed groups and militaries have committed most of the major attacks against aid workers over the years, but incidents of violent ‘common crime’ are rising in operational settings, and in 2020, criminality exceeded conflict-related violence in aid worker attacks for the first time. } Political violence and crime coexist and frequently overlap in volatile environments, but humanitarians approach the two types of risk differently, and possess fewer risk management tools for dealing with crime, defaulting to purely protective or deterrent approaches. } New approaches aimed at reducing the threat of violent crime (expanding on the acceptance model) are worthy of exploration, and humanitarian risk management should develop better analysis and understanding of criminal threat sources.