Here at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, we received word on Monday that a UNICEF worker was tragically killed on Sunday in Somalia. Mukhtar Mohammed Hassan was a dedicated supervisor of UNICEF-supported water, sanitation and hygiene activities—working to get clean water to suffering Somali children in the war-torn country. Hassan’s death came just three days after the killing of another U.N. employee in Somalia.
What's so deeply upsetting about these brutal attacks is the fact that they’re not isolated instances. So far this year, fourteen humanitarian workers have been killed in Somalia alone. In addition, attacks on foreign aid workers have forced many international personnel to evacuate the country and leave the work solely in the hands of Somali staff.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ03-0452/Shehzad Noorani |
| IRAQ: A UNICEF worker speaks with a man who lost several family members when an explosion destroyed his brother's home in the Baghdad neighborhood of Zafarania. |
UNICEF released a statement after Hassan’s death condemning the senseless killing and appealing “for an end to acts of violence against humanitarian workers and again call[ing] for safe access for our staff in order to support Somalis who are already living under extremely difficult circumstances.”
Somalia is one of many countries right now where humanitarian organizations including UNICEF are working under highly dangerous conditions, and are even specifically targeted with violence. As Jen Banbury reported last month, Afghanistan has also become increasingly volatile of late. In mid-September, a suicide bomber ran a car into a U.N. convoy, killing a driver and two World Health Organization doctors. And according to Reuters, 94 aid workers have been killed in Iraq since 2003.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ01-0645/Shehzad Noorani |
| AFGHANISTAN: A woman and a girl prepare a meal beside a cluster of UNICEF tents in the Maslakh camp for an displaced persons. |
But in the midst of conflict, UNICEF is steadfast in its mission to help save the lives of children—the innocent victims of this violence. The head of emergency preparedness and response for UNICEF Iraq, Luciano Calestini, spoke at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF annual meeting this year about a recent successful delivery of safe water to children and their families during intense fighting in Baghdad and Basra. Sadly, during this mission, a loose shell killed a worker while he was connecting pipes to a truck transporting the water. Calestini offered, “If that’s not doing whatever it takes to save a child, I don’t know what is.”
From UNICEF's inception, we have worked in dangerous countries to bring aid to the most vulnerable children. And we will continue the work—no matter the circumstances—until no child dies needlessly and senselessly.
