Kerry Pays Tribute to Humanitarian Workers Killed in Line of Duty

Some 120 humanitarian workers around the globe were killed in 2014 and at least 200 more attacked, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement honoring World Humanitarian Day.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Most aid workers who are killed around the world in the line of duty are not foreign visitors to their countries, but local staff hired by charities and non-governmental organizations, Kerry noted.

"It is almost inexpressible that last year, at least 329 humanitarian aid workers around the world were victims of major attacks, more than 100 were kidnapped, scores were wounded, and 120 died in the service of millions of people in need," Kerry said in the statement issued on Wednesday.

The problem of The American Red Cross' missing money is "a cycle of overhead," says Jonathan Katz, an Associated Press reporter who tracked post-disaster spending in Haiti. "It was always going to be the American Red Cross taking a 9 percent cut, re-granting to another group, which would take out their cut."

© AP Photo / Esteban Felix

The US top diplomat described humanitarian workers as "people who do vital work in volatile places."

Assaults on humanitarian workers, he added, make it more difficult for them to deliver food, water, medicine, shelter and provide the protection that vulnerable civilians need.

"Tragically, the world has lost some of its bravest and most compassionate humanitarians to acts of senseless violence," Kerry stated.

World Humanitarian Day was designated by the UN General Assembly to coincide with the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, according to the UN official web site.