Fourteen years ago, on August 19, 2003, a suicide bomber drove a truck bomb into the offices of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, killing 22 people, wounding over 100, and damaging a nearby hospital. In tribute to aid workers risking their lives in service, the UN General Assembly designated August 19 as World Humanitarian Day. Yet, in conflicts throughout the world, warring parties continue to target humanitarians and hospitals as a tactic of war.
Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict has researched and documented the impact of such attacks on children’s health, and it is clear that attacks on humanitarians are not isolated nor contained to one region or war. Civilians–especially children–bear the brunt of the devastating consequences.
In Yemen, less than 50 percent of hospitals are functioning, partly the result of direct attacks by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the Houthis; additionally, a de facto blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition since 2015 has led to a shortage of medical supplies. At the same time, the country is experiencing the worst cholera epidemic in history. In just four months, since the first cases were reported in April 2017, there have been more than 500,000 suspected cases and almost 2,000 deaths. More than a quarter of those who have died and almost half of those infected have been children.
A major food crisis compounds the dire situation, as aid organizations have reportedly been forced to divert funds intended to address the looming famine to cholera response.
A cholera outbreak and threat of famine also wrack South Sudan, where, similar to Yemen, only half of all hospitals remain open due to damage and destruction caused by security forces and armed groups. Humanitarian convoys filled with medical supplies and food aid are regularly delayed or turned back at checkpoints, while tens, in some cases hundreds of thousands of people, mainly women and children, wait in desperate need a few miles away. Humanitarian workers routinely risk being threatened, kidnapped, or killed simply for doing their jobs; recently, there have even been reports of forced recruitment of medical staff by armed groups to fight in the scorched-earth war.
And, as conflict has escalated throughout Afghanistan, health care workers have been on the frontlines of conflict. In 2015 and 2016, there were more than 240 attacks on health care facilities and workers, with incidents occurring in most of the country’s 34 provinces.
In Nangarhar Province, on the border with Pakistan, ISIS is fighting the Taliban and government forces for control of villages and towns. In areas where the group has forced out the opposition, they have ordered the closure of clinics and suspension of vaccination programs for children. A vaccinator we spoke with explained, “Our clinic was in the middle of the conflict. So even though it is my job, I had to stop. Otherwise, I thought ISIS or Taliban would kill me.”
The tagline for this year’s World Humanitarian Day is #NotATarget, echoing the UN Secretary-General’s calls for respect for humanitarian workers and protection of civilians in war.
Some concrete steps have already been taken. In 2011, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1998, making parties that attack hospitals and schools eligible for inclusion on the Secretary-General’s ‘list of shame’ in his annual report on children and armed conflict. And in 2016, the Security Council adopted Resolution 2286 calling for greater protection of health care and humanitarian aid in armed conflict and strengthened accountability for perpetrators of attacks. However, given the situation in these three countries and many others, as well as near-impunity for perpetrators, at times it feels we’re just marching in place.
There are ways forward. For example, the Secretary-General should list in his 2017 annual report the Saudi Arabia-led coalition for numerous airstrikes they carried out on hospitals and schools in Yemen in 2016. Additionally, the Security Council should appoint independent, impartial review panels, such as Commissions of Inquiry to investigate attacks in South Sudan or Afghanistan.
While accountability measures alone are not sufficient to prevent attacks on humanitarians, they are an important component. They signify to perpetrators that attacks have not become so normalized as to be without consequence, and that by protecting humanitarians, there is still a clear line between what is and is not acceptable in the conduct of war.