Aid Workers Killed in Congo, Afghanistan

Published July 21, 2009 @ 07:08AM PT

The aid agency Caritas has just announced that one of their staff was killed in Congo last week. According to Caritas:

"Ricky Agusa Sukaka, 27, was shot dead in Musezero, North Kivu, on the way home from work on the afternoon of 15 July. When his colleagues found him, his pockets had been emptied and his Secours Catholique-Caritas France t-shirt removed.

Villagers reported seeing Mr Sukaka, who was a Congolese national, stopped by two men wearing Congolese army uniforms before he was killed."

The situation in eastern Congo - and particularly in North Kivu - is not-good, to say the least. According to a recent Oxfam survey, 80% of respondents reported that security was worse now than a year ago.

Aid workers are not immune - for the number and location of attacks against aid workers from January through the end of May, see here. That said, Mr. Sukaka is the first aid worker killed in the DRC this year.

Also, a driver working for an NGO in eastern Afghanistan was killed during a neighborhood dispute last week.

Two Afghan aid workers were also killed earlier this month. This brings to thirteen the number of aid workers killed in Afghanistan this year.

For a full break-down of NGO fatalities since January, see here. For more about why attacks against aid workers are increasing worldwide, see here.

As always, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims' families and colleagues.

[Photo of Congolese soldiers in North Kivu from Joe Bavier / Reuters]

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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.