Aid workers pay the price as drone warfare reshapes conflict
This World Humanitarian Day, World Vision warns that the growing use of drones in conflicts is threatening children’s survival, humanitarian access, and aid workers’ lives.
In the past three years, more than 1,000 humanitarian workers have been killed, with 350 killed in 2025 alone, the second-highest number ever recorded.
The danger to humanitarian workers has been mirrored by attacks on health and education facilities, with more than 8,500 attacks on education services in 2024/5 and nearly 800 attacks on health care centres and personnel in 2026 so far.
World Vision New Zealand’s Head of International Partnerships, Stephen Court, says the use of drones in conflict has made humanitarian work more dangerous than ever before.
"The buzz of a drone overhead signals danger and causes panic for children, families, and humanitarian workers.
"Drones can now be heard above hospitals in Sudan, over war-torn villages in Ukraine, along roads where aid convoys are travelling, and where children wait for food, medicine, clean water, and safety.
"The growing use of drones and other emerging technologies are ultimately leaving children cut off from the help they need most," he says.
Court says drone attacks are being used more widely in places like Sudan and Ukraine and there are regular reports of children hiding when they hear the hum of drones overhead.
"Technology may be changing how conflicts are fought, but it cannot change our responsibility to protect human life and dignity. Every drone strike that closes a clinic, destroys a road, or forces aid workers to turn back is also an attack on a child’s chance to survive.
"Humanitarian workers are not targets. Hospitals are not targets. And children are not collateral damage," Court says.
He says when aid workers are attacked or blocked from reaching people in need, children are left waiting for food, medicine and protection that may never come.
Court says protecting humanitarian workers is ultimately inseparable from protecting children. Every attack that prevents aid workers from reaching a community exposes children to hunger, disease, violence, exploitation, and despair.
On World Humanitarian Day (19 August), World Vision honours the humanitarian workers who have lost their lives and those who continue to serve in the world’s most dangerous places, but says remembrance must also be matched by protection, access, and accountability.
The children’s humanitarian charity is calling for:
In the past three years, more than 1,000 humanitarian workers have been killed, with 350 killed in 2025 alone, the second-highest number ever recorded.
The danger to humanitarian workers has been mirrored by attacks on health and education facilities, with more than 8,500 attacks on education services in 2024/5 and nearly 800 attacks on health care centres and personnel in 2026 so far.
World Vision New Zealand’s Head of International Partnerships, Stephen Court, says the use of drones in conflict has made humanitarian work more dangerous than ever before.
"The buzz of a drone overhead signals danger and causes panic for children, families, and humanitarian workers.
"Drones can now be heard above hospitals in Sudan, over war-torn villages in Ukraine, along roads where aid convoys are travelling, and where children wait for food, medicine, clean water, and safety.
"The growing use of drones and other emerging technologies are ultimately leaving children cut off from the help they need most," he says.
Court says drone attacks are being used more widely in places like Sudan and Ukraine and there are regular reports of children hiding when they hear the hum of drones overhead.
"Technology may be changing how conflicts are fought, but it cannot change our responsibility to protect human life and dignity. Every drone strike that closes a clinic, destroys a road, or forces aid workers to turn back is also an attack on a child’s chance to survive.
"Humanitarian workers are not targets. Hospitals are not targets. And children are not collateral damage," Court says.
He says when aid workers are attacked or blocked from reaching people in need, children are left waiting for food, medicine and protection that may never come.
Court says protecting humanitarian workers is ultimately inseparable from protecting children. Every attack that prevents aid workers from reaching a community exposes children to hunger, disease, violence, exploitation, and despair.
On World Humanitarian Day (19 August), World Vision honours the humanitarian workers who have lost their lives and those who continue to serve in the world’s most dangerous places, but says remembrance must also be matched by protection, access, and accountability.
The children’s humanitarian charity is calling for:
- Protection for humanitarian workers, civilians, and civilian infrastructure in line with international humanitarian law.
- Guaranteed safe, sustained, and unimpeded humanitarian access for children and families affected by conflict.
- Independent investigations, accountability, and consequences for attacks on humanitarian workers, healthcare facilities, and other civilian infrastructure.
- The international community to address the humanitarian consequences of drones and other emerging military technologies, including their impact on humanitarian access, civilian protection, and children’s safety.