United Nations Resident Coordinator Bruno Moro on Thursday expressed his concern about the situation for aid workers in Colombia, stressing that 30 of them were killed this year so far and others are subject to threats.
According to the official, 2010 “has not been an easy year for aid workers in Colombia.”
Moro stressed that this year so far 30 aid workers were killed, while in the previous two years almost 100 aid workers were murdered, which according to the official is “three times as much as a decade ago and twice the amount of eight years ago.”
What also worries the UN, are the “multiple threats from illegal armed groups against members of the humanitarian community, human rights workers and civil and social organizations, especially those for victims,” Moro stressed.
Moreover, “unlawful retentions, the misuse of cars with logos of humanitarian organizations …, the theft of information …, or the presence of antipersonnel mines exemplify some of the difficulties for aid workers in the country,” the diplomat said.
According to the UN representative, Colombia is a country with “important peculiarities” that make it different than other countries were aid work is a “dangerous job.”