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DR Congo + 9 more

Attacks on Health Care Bi-Monthly News Brief: 25 December 2024 - 07 January 2025

Attachments

Hovering Threats The Challenges of Armed Drones in Humanitarian Contexts
This report examines how conflict parties’ increased use of armed drones affects the delivery of aid in conflict zones. It explores strategies to mitigate risks to aid workers, operations, and health care delivery by reviewing both the technical characteristics of armed drones and their munitions, as well as best practices when dealing with the armed drone threat in aid security risk management processes and procedures. The report concludes with actionable recommendations for aid agency security risk managers and advocates.

The use of armed drones that impacted health care services has been recorded since 2016. The first case of aid and health operations being directly affected was recorded in Syria after a Russian armed drone struck an IDP camp and, in a separate incident, a drone delivered explosive struck a gynaecology centre. Since 2016, health services have frequently reported being impacted by drone-delivered explosives, 300 incidents (70% of all recorded incidents) of drone use affecting health programmes in 16 countries and territories. Read more: full report; summary report