Swedish UN worker Zahra Abidi

Zahra Abidi

This report is from Ivory Coast but we have included it on this website as a tribute to Zahra Abidi

A Swedish United Nations employee was shot and killed in Abidjan by a stray bullet, on 31st March 2011.

Zahra Abidi, aged 34, was hit in her home in Abidjan, where she was working for the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI).

Fighting erupted in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan on Thursday as forces loyal to internationally recognised election winner Alassane Ouattara make a final push for power against incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power.

Bloody post-election violence has plunged the world's top cocoa producer into political and economic crisis, killing nearly 500 people and forcing more than one million people to flee.

The next day, but in Afghanistan, three UN workers - Joakim Dungel from Sweden, Siri Skare from Norway and Filaret Motco from Romania, plus four Nepalese Gurkha guards died.

Swedish UN worker Joakim Dungel

Joakim Dungel, aged 33, from Sweden was killed on 1st April 2011 as a result of a violent demonstration in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Mr. Dungel, a lawyer, was working as a human rights officer for the United Nations. He had previously worked with the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague, Netherlands, on war crime trials relating to the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

He followed his passion for defending human rights to some of the most difficult places in the world. Before moving to Afghanistan in 2011, he worked for the UN in Lebanon and with the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Four Nepalese guards were also killed along with two other foreign UN workers, Siri Skare from Norway and Filaret Motco from Romania. 

The previous day, but on a different continent, fellow Swede and aid worker, Zahra Abidi was killed in Ivory Coast, Africa.

British Aid worker, Linda Norgrove, dies during rescue attempt

Linda Norgrove

A kidnapped British aid worker in Afghanistan has been killed during an attempted rescue by Nato troops. The death of Linda Norgrove was announced by William Hague, the British foreign secretary. She had been captured last month in eastern Afghanistan.

In a statement, Hague said: "It is with deep sadness that I must confirm that Linda Norgrove, the British aid worker who had been held hostage in eastern Afghanistan since 26 September, was killed at the hands of her captors  in the course of a rescue attempt last night.

"Working with our allies, we received information about where Linda was being held and we decided that, given the danger she was facing, her best chance of safe release was to act on that information.

Read news stories here:  The Guardian | The Daily Mail

Aid worker, Daniela Beyer

AID WORKER
Name:	Daniela Beyer
Age:	35
Nationality:	German
Organisation:	International Assistance Mission
Location:	Badakhshan, Afghanistan
Date:	06 August 2010
Cause:	Executed (shot) by Taliban extremists

New York optometrist, Tom Little, killed in Afghanistan

In the remote rural villages of Afghanistan, the big-hearted New Yorker was known simply as Mr. Tom.

For more than three decades, opthamologist Tom Little made his home and did his work in the war-torn nation, raising three daughters while treating thousands of needy patients each year.

Little, who survived the 1979 war with the Russians and exile by the Taliban in 2001, was shot to death while heading home after a humanitarian mission in northern Afghanistan.

Click here to read story in NY Daily News

British doctor, Karen Woo, shot dead by Taliban

Doctor Karen Woo

A British doctor who quit her job in the UK to help civilians in Afghanistan has been murdered by the Taliban, two weeks before she was due to get married.

Dr Karen Woo, 36, and nine other volunteers were killed after they delivered medical supplies to the lawless province of Nuristan in the north-east of the country.

The former London hospital surgeon, six Americans, a German and an Afghan were lined up and shot one after the other by a ten-strong gang armed with AK-47 rifles.

Their abandoned bodies were discovered beside the bullet-riddled remains of their three 4x4s in the neighbouring province of Badakhshan. Their passports and all their belongings had been stolen. 
 

Read more about Karen at the Karen Woo Foundation

American aid worker, Glen Lapp murdered by Taliban

Glen D.Lapp, a 40-year-old nurse from Lancaster, was one of a group of 10 charity aid workers executed by Taliban in Nuristan province. He had been in Afghanistan for nearly two years. Though trained as a nurse, Lapp managed logistics for the International Assistance Mission, a Kabul-based Christian charity that organized the trip. An official with the group said it was authorized to treat people in the Parun valley for eye diseases. 

Glen Lapp

Aid worker, Tom Grams

AID WORKER
Name:	Tom Grams
Age:	51
Nationality:	American
Organisation:	International Assistance Mission
Location:	Badakhshan, Afghanistan
Date:	06 August 2010
Cause:	Executed (shot) by Taliban extremists

Aid worker, Brian Carderelli

AID WORKER
Name:	Brian Carderelli
Age:	25
Nationality:	American
Organisation:	International Assistance Mission
Location:	Badakhshan, Afghanistan
Date:	06 August 2010
Cause:	Executed (shot) by Taliban extremists

Aid worker, Cheryl Beckett

AID WORKER
Name:	Cheryl Beckett
Age:	32
Nationality:	American
Organisation:	International Assistance Mission
Location:	Badakhshan, Afghanistan
Date:	6 August 2010
Cause:	Executed (shot) by Taliban extremists

Aid worker Dan Terry

AID WORKER
Name:	Dan Terry
Age:	63
Nationality:	American
Organisation:	International Assistance Mission
Location:	Badakhshan, Afghanistan
Date:	06 August 2010
Cause:	Executed (shot) by Taliban extremists

British aid worker, Chris Carter

British aid worker Chris Carter (51) was among three British civilians killed when their Pamir Airways domestic flight from Kunduz to Kabul crashed in mysterious circumstances on the Salang Pass, Afghanistan, in May 2010.

Mr. Carter was Director of Security for Afghanistan Vouchers for Increased Productive Agriculture (AVIPA) Plus program of the International Relief and Development organisation.

He was serving on one of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s leading stabilization programs, helping to increase rural family farm production, improve irrigation systems and road infrastructure, and strengthen the ties between the Afghan government and its people.

Aid worker shot dead in Kabul

Gayle Williams

Gayle Williams was an aid worker for SERVE Afghanistan of joint British and South African nationality. She was shot dead on her way to work in Kabul by two men on a motorbike on 20th October 2008.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility for her death and said she had been killed "because she was working for an organization which was preaching Christianity in Afghanistan."

Japanese aid worker shot dead in Nangarhar

The bullet-riddled body of an abducted Japanese aid worker was recovered Wednesday, the latest grim symbol of insurgents' apparent determination to drive foreign humanitarian groups from Afghanistan. Afghan and Japanese authorities identified the slain man as Kazuya Ito, an engineer who was seized by gunmen a day earlier in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul.

 The Japanese engineer worked for an aid organization called Peshawar-kai, meaning the Peshawar group, based in Fukuoka, Japan. It is named for a Pakistani city just across the border that is home to hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees.

Ito, 31, was working on agricultural development projects in a remote eastern area of Afghanistan, Japanese diplomats and colleagues said. Authorities said gunmen stopped his car Tuesday near the city of Jalalabad, which lies on the main road connecting Kabul, the Afghan capital, and the border with Pakistan. Ito's Afghan driver was released unharmed.

UK aid worker killed near Kabul

A UK aid worker killed in Afghanistan has been named as University of Ulster research fellow Dr Jacqueline Kirk.

 

She was one of three female aid workers shot dead in an ambush, along with their Afghan driver, near Kabul, the International Rescue Committee said.

The other two women were American, Nicole Dial, and Canadian, Shirley Case.

Read full story at BBC

American aid worker murdered with 2 others

On Wednesday, 30-year-old Nicole Dial was gunned down in Afghanistan along with two other women, Shirley Case and Jacqueline Kirk, all workers with the International Rescue Committee.

Nicole Dial

They had been to the town of Gardez, where they planned to open a children's school. They were returning to Kabul when Taliban fighters with assault rifles attacked their car. All three were killed instantly.

Read more at Denver Post

Canadian Aid worker shot dead

Canadian citizen, Shirley Case, one of three female aid workers shot dead in Afghanistan today, was a girl who wanted to help the world.

Case, 30, of Williams Lake, and Briton, Jackie Kirk, were killed by Taliban insurgents south of Kabul, a senior official of the aid agency International Rescue Committee said Wednesday.

Shirley Case

Another female aid worker, Nicole Dial from U.S., and a Kabul man who worked as a driver for the IRC, also died.

The group was en route to Kabul and travelling in a clearly marked International Rescue Committee vehicle when they came under fire at mid-morning.

Read story here...

American aid worker kidnapped, feared dead

Cyd Mizell, an American woman teaching in Afghanistan was kidnapped on her way to work on January 26, 2008. On February 27, 2008, the aid group she worked for, Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, reported that she was apparently dead. 

Witnesses report seeing 6 gunmen involved in her abduction. Nobody has ever claimed responsibility for her kidnapping and no body has ever been found.

Aid worker killed in Kabul hotel shootings

Thor Hesla

Thor Hesla was among six dead in a Taliban attack on the Hotel Serena, Kabul, on 14th January 2008. Hesla was in Afghanistan working for USAID.

The Taliban said it was behind the attack that killed him, carried out by suicide bombers and gunmen. Six other people were killed at Kabul's Serena hotel that day including journalist, Carsten Thomassen.

Two Korean Aid workers executed

Two South Korean aid workers have been executed.

The 2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan began on July 19, 2007, when 23 South Korean missionaries were captured and held hostage by members of the Taliban while passing through Ghazni Province of Afghanistan. Two male hostages were executed before the deal was reached between the Taliban and the South Korean government. The group, composed of sixteen women and seven men, was captured while traveling from Kandahar to Kabul by bus on a mission sponsored by the Saemmul Presbyterian Church.

The crisis began when two local men, who the driver had allowed to board, started shooting to bring the bus to a halt. Over the next month, the hostages were kept in cellars and farmhouses and regularly moved in groups of three to four.

Of the 23 hostages captured, two men, Bae Hyeong-gyu, a 42-year-old South Korean pastor of Saemmul Church, and Shim Seong-min, a 29-year-old South Korean man, were executed on July 25 and July 30, respectively. Later, with negotiations making progress, two women, Kim Gyeong-ja and Kim Ji-na, were released on August 13 and the remaining 19 hostages on August 29 and August 30.

L: Bae Hyeong-gyu. C: Korean Hostage group. R: Shim Seong-min

The release of the hostages was secured with a South Korean promise to withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2007. Although the South Korean government offered no statement, a Taliban spokesman claimed that the militant group also received some US$20 million in exchange for the safety of the captured missionaries.