Glass Half Full, Glass Half Empty

by Michael Bear · 2009-03-18 12:02:00 UTC
Topics:

Just to continue today's theme on aid worker security, some good news and some not-so-good news of late.

First, the good news.  Four UN staff kidnapped in Somalia on Monday were released unharmed that same evening.

Similarly, four Medecins Sans Frontieres staff kidnapped in Darfur last week were released over the weekend.

Now the not-so-good news.  An aid worker with CARE was killed in Sri Lanka yesterday.  Mr. R. Sabesan was in the "no-fire zone" established by the Sri Lankan military when he was hit by artillery; he later died of his injuries.

As Patronus Analytical points out, Mr. Sabesan is the second aid worker killed by artillery fire in northern Sri Lanka this month.

In addition, a Peace Corps volunteer was murdered in Benin earlier this month.

As for statistics on aid worker fatalities so far in 2009:

- In Gaza, five UNRWA staff, three UNRWA contractors, and one WFP contractor have been killed since December 27th, with another four staff and six contractors injured. In addition, one aid worker with CARE has also been killed, as have thirteen medical personnel.

- Four aid workers have been killed in Sri Lanka, including two in February and two in March

- Three aid workers have been killed in Mozambique

- Two aid workers have been killed in Somalia

- Two aid workers have been killed in Pakistan

- Two aid workers were killed in Sri Lanka in February, a third aid worker was killed there in March

- Two aid workers have been killed in Darfur

- Two aid workers have been killed in Afghanistan (ANSO report #20, covering February 16th - 28th, 2009)

- One aid worker has been killed in Benin

This is by no means a comprehensive list.

[One of the MSF staff released after being kidnapped in Darfur - Photo from AP / Nasser Nasser]

Michael Bear
PREVIOUS STORY:
Dangerous Times to Be an Aid Worker
NEXT STORY:
A letter from Bettina Siegel, "Pink Slime" petition creator

COMMENTS (1)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.