The US State Department released this infographic depicting the sharp increase in attacks against humanitarian aid workers since September 11th, 2001.
As a subset of humanitarian workers, UN staff have come under increasing threat from politically motivated attacks since 9-11. The August 19, 2003 attack on the UN headquarters in Iraq (which is now commemorated as World Humanitarian Day) was the first in a long and continuing string of high profile attacks against UN targets by terrorists inspired by radical religious beliefs. This includes a 2007 bombing of UN offices in Algiers; a suicide bombing targeting the WFP headquarters in Pakistan in 2009; and a devastating bombing of the UN headquarters in Abudja, Nigeria in 2011, among others.
Maps like this demonstrate the great personal risk undertaken by humanitarians who go to work everyday to serve the world’s most vulnerable people.