Red Cross appeals for more attention on deaths of local aid workers

By Simon Lewis

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Killings of local humanitarian workers in conflicts around the world must provoke the same outrage as international aid workers harmed in conflict, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Tuesday.

The number of aid workers killed has spiked this year largely due to Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. Nearly 300 humanitarian aid workers, more than two-thirds of them U.N. staff, have been killed since the conflict began in October.

IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said 30 local Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers have been killed on duty, while wearing the organizations' insignia, since January.

Seventeen of those were killed in the Palestinian territories and eight in Sudan, he said, calling for countries and international bodies to do more to protect them.

"They come from their communities where they also work, but unfortunately, it is they who are being hurt and killed most" yet those incidents get less attention, he said.

"When they get killed in the mission, when they were fully identified, and there is not a type of outcry that is needed to change the needle, I do feel a sense of helplessness."

Chapagain cited an analysis of media reports that showed coverage of attacks on humanitarians was overwhelmingly of incidents involving international staff.

He referred to the April killing of seven workers of the U.S.-based charity World Central Kitchen in an Israeli air strike, which elicited global outrage and led Washington to insist that Israel better protect aid workers.

"I believe that outrage was helpful to bring the issue to the table, but what happened was then it dropped - it dropped massively," he said, adding that sustained attention was needed to change the situation.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Bill Berkrot)