World Humanitarian Day 2026: IFRC calls to protect those who protect humanity

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) marked World Humanitarian Day 2026 on 19 August with a global appeal to protect humanitarian personnel, spotlighting the killing of Lebanese Red Cross paramedic Hasan Badawi on the night of 12 April 2026 during an emergency medical mission in southern Lebanon, according to a press release by IFRC. Badawi’s ambulance was marked with the Red Cross emblem on every side, lit up as international humanitarian law requires, and his crew had given advance notice of their route through the usual channels, including UN peacekeepers. He was killed responding to the wounded of an earlier strike in the town of Beit Yahoun, having worn the emblem for fourteen years. The IFRC stated that attacks on humanitarian workers are not new and are not slowing down. The organization warned that the protection promised by the emblem has been failing the people it was meant to shield.

According to the IFRC, 2024 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers worldwide, with 383 aid personnel killed. In 2025, 332 humanitarians were killed in violent incidents around the world, and 99% of them were local staff and volunteers. Within the IFRC network, nearly 100 staff and volunteers have died serving their communities since 2023. In the first half of 2026 alone, 21 IFRC personnel were lost: twelve killed in violent attacks and nine in non-violent incidents while doing their jobs. The IFRC described the trend as a worsening pattern rather than a single bad year.

The IFRC named several colleagues lost in recent months, including Hasan Badawi in Lebanon; Abolfazl Dahanavi in Iran, the fourth Iranian Red Crescent volunteer lost within five weeks of conflict; Byamungu Mugisho Kabuha and Mugisho Mparanya Romain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killed by unidentified armed individuals while repairing a village water system; Ahmed Yaqoub Othman, killed in North Kordofan, Sudan, while giving first aid; and Hussein Hassan Hussein Al-Samiri, a paramedic killed in Khan Younis, Palestine. The IFRC also highlighted the June 2026 attack on two Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo volunteers, Dieudonné and Ushindi, who were violently assaulted while carrying out a safe and dignified burial during an Ebola outbreak. Both men suffered severe injuries and required lengthy hospitalization. Rumours about the disease and mistrust of responders had spread through parts of the community. The IFRC noted that humanitarian workers can face danger far beyond the front lines of war.

IFRC Under Secretary General Xavier Castellanos, who visited Lebanese Red Cross and Iranian Red Crescent teams earlier this year, described paramedics pulling on flak jackets and helmets before climbing into ambulances, and met a rescue team in Iran that had just lost a colleague to a so-called double-tap strike.

“You cannot help but ask: what must it be like to perform CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) under that weight? To try to save a life while fearing for your own is something no one should have to bear,” Castellanos wrote.

In September 2025, IFRC President Kate Forbes addressed the United Nations General Assembly at the launch of the Declaration on the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, recalling how “too many times I had to write condolence letters” to families of Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers. Forbes stressed that a declaration on paper does not stop bullets, bombs, or attacks — only action does. The IFRC underscored that impunity in one place breeds impunity everywhere.

The IFRC issued four demands to every state and party to conflict:

• RESPECT — Uphold international humanitarian law.
• PREVENT — Take immediate, concrete action to stop the next attack before it happens.
• ACCOUNTABILITY — Ensure consequences for those who kill humanitarian workers.
• SUPPORT — Invest in training, protective equipment, insurance, and support for the families left behind.

The IFRC urged the public to say the names of those lost, join its Protect Humanity campaign using #ActForHumanity and #ProtectHumanity, advocate for endorsement of the Declaration on the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, and donate to the Red Family Fund, which provides one-time financial assistance to the families of colleagues killed in the line of duty. The organization closed with the message that humanitarian volunteers and staff are not targets, but the people who show up when everyone else has left.