Aid Worker Killed in Pakistan

Published July 16, 2009 @ 05:08AM PT

More bad news - a UN official was shot and killed earlier today during an attempted kidnapping outside of a displaced person camp in Pakistan. A camp guard was also killed. According to the LA Times:

"Zelle Usman, a Pakistani citizen and field officer for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, was slain at the Kacha Garhi refugee camp outside Peshawar, northwest Pakistan's largest city. Usman was in his car getting ready to leave the camp when four gunmen tried to kidnap him, said Abdul Ghafoor Afridi, a senior Peshawar police official.

When Usman and a camp guard resisted, a gunfight broke out. Usman, 59, was fatally wounded in the chest and the guard was also killed, Afridi said. One of the gunmen was shot but was able to escape with the other three assailants."

This is tragic, but not completely surprising, especially considering that aid work in Pakistan is becoming increasingly politicized.

This brings to 64 the number of aid workers killed this year, including 13 in Pakistan; more aid workers have been killed in Pakistan this year than anywhere else. For more information on attacks against aid workers, see here.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Usman's family and colleagues, and the family and colleagues of the guard who was also slain.

[Guard at a displaced person camps near Peshawar, Pakistan - Photo from AP]

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Author

Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.