WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- A security report prepared for relief agencies says more than one in five relief workers will face or be threatened with gun violence while they work.
Most of the threats come not from insurgents or militias but from common criminals and civilians armed with guns - often handguns.
"While much is made of the deliberate targeting of humanitarian and development actors by armed groups and warring factions, by far the biggest threat emerges from the threat of criminal violence," states the June 2005 report, "No Relief: Surveying the Effects of Gun Violence on Humanitarian and Development Personnel," from the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.
More than 100 aid workers were killed around the world between July 2003 and July 2004. At least 29 aid workers were shot to death in Afghanistan in the first six months of 2004, according to the report.
United Nations staff are particularly hard hit: Across its operations the organization had 24 workers murdered last year; 14 kidnapped; 388 assaults; seven convoy attacks and 34 bomb threats, according to the report.
The most dangerous places for humanitarian aid workers - including murders, assaults, bomb threats and other attacks -- are the occupied territories of Palestine, Uganda and Iraq.
Despite high-profile kidnappings and killings of westerners in places like Iraq, those most likely to be killed are nationals of the country where they are working rather than expatriates. In Afghanistan, Afghan aid workers are three times more likely than their expatriate counterparts to be victimized.
Between 1997 and 2003, there were 58 aid workers killed in Angola; 36 in Afghanistan; 32 in Iraq; and 29 in Sudan.
Aid workers are increasingly hiring personal security - some 32 percent of groups reported they had contracted with private guards, primarily to protect buildings. That's up from 17 percent when a similar survey was taken two years ago.
