Giving aid in the line of fire
The recent killings of three humanitarian aid workers in Nigeria by suspected Boko Haram militants have sent shock waves throughout the humanitarian aid community and illuminated the increasingly precarious landscape such personnel must navigate to help people in areas of conflict and instability.
But the slayings were not an anomaly.
"Year on year, the number of incidents and the number of victims is, sadly, unacceptably high and steady," said Adele Harmer, a partner with Humanitarian Outcomes, a research organization based in the United Kingdom that focuses on humanitarian policy and practice and runs the Aid Worker Security Data- base that records major incidents of violence against humanitarian workers.
On average, 102 aid workers were killed each year from 2006 to 2016, with
