By Muhammad Amaan
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has called on world leaders to ensure the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to people in need across the globe.
The appeal was made in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Acting Executive Director of UNFPA, Ms. Diene Keita, to mark the 2025 World Humanitarian Day.
“This year’s theme is: “Strengthening Global Solidarity and Empowering Local Communities.”
Keita urged global leaders to protect humanitarian workers, safeguard health systems and lifesaving services, and take meaningful action to uphold humanity at a time when global needs had reached unprecedented levels.
“Humanitarian action has never been more important, nor more imperilled. Needs are overwhelming, humanitarian response is woefully underfunded, and aid workers and vital infrastructure are increasingly under attack,” she said.
Ms. Keita noted that health facilities, once considered safe havens during conflicts, had now become battlegrounds in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gaza, Haiti, Sudan, Ukraine, and Yemen.
She revealed that between 2023 and 2024, violence against health facilities had doubled, and 2025 had already recorded more aid worker deaths than 2024, which had previously been the deadliest year on record.
“Health workers and humanitarians are a lifeline for civilians swept up in a rising tide of violence.
“Deliberate attacks against them are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, violations that are too often met with impunity,” she said.
She further highlighted that maternity hospitals and emergency wards had been among the many health facilities attacked in crisis zones, with midwives, doctors, ambulance drivers, first responders, and patients among the casualties.
Ms. Keita pointed out that sexual and reproductive health services had been particularly hard hit, with severe funding cuts worsening the plight of women and girls affected by conflict.
“For women and girls, the consequences have been dire, pregnant women losing their lives when a bomb hits a maternity ward, or when they are forced to give birth without skilled care.
“Sexual violence is being wielded as a weapon of war, and survivors are often too afraid to seek post-rape treatment,” she said.
In spite of those daunting challenges, Keita emphasised that UNFPA continued to witness acts of courage and commitment through frontline partnerships that worked to promote peace, health, and dignity for women and girls.
“On World Humanitarian Day, we pay tribute to our dedicated humanitarian colleagues working on the frontlines, often at great personal risk, to safeguard the health, safety, and dignity of women, girls, and young people.
“Access to quality healthcare is a human right, even in times of conflict,” she stated.
Keita stressed that both those providing aid and those receiving it deserved safety and protection, as guaranteed under international law.
