The Uganda Red Cross Society, together with the entire Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, mourns the untimely passing of Ismael Mulindwa, a staff member of the Uganda Red Cross Society who was fatally attacked while on official deployment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, supporting the Ebola response operation.
Ismael’s death is not an isolated incident. Humanitarian workers around the world continue to face increasing risks to their safety and security as they strive to deliver assistance and life-saving support to people in need.
These attacks take various forms, including acts of violence, arbitrary arrests, and detention by both state and non-state armed groups.
Such risks are often fuelled by misinformation and hate speech targeting humanitarian organizations, and they frequently disrupt and undermine humanitarian operations and the delivery of assistance to affected populations.
Hinged on the commitment and framework to safeguard humanitarian workers and to uphold International Humanitarian Law, the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, was launched in September 2025.
It has since received endorsements from 130 countries, including Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, representing more than two-thirds of United Nations Member States.
The Declaration demonstrates the resolve of governments, at the highest political level, to take action to improve the safety and security of humanitarian workers.
It sets out practical and actionable steps that states can take to protect humanitarian personnel, built around four pillars: strengthening respect for and adherence to International Humanitarian Law; facilitating full, safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access; promoting greater alignment of actions to protect humanitarian workers; and ending impunity by ensuring accountability for attacks against humanitarian personnel.
All these are a fortification of earlier global contributions, including United Nations Security Council Resolution 2730 and the Global Initiative to Galvanize Political Commitment to International Humanitarian Law, which call on all States to respect and protect humanitarian personnel in the performance of their duties, particularly in situations of armed conflict.
Despite these protections, the sustained attacks on humanitarian workers remain widespread globally and have largely gone unpunished. The absence of accountability for these attack mirror a dangerous message that all the humanitarian workers and lifesaving efforts are expendable.
States’ commitment should therefore be directed towards taking concrete, deliberate, and immediate steps to protect humanitarian workers, ensuring their safety. These protections should extend to holding the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to book, ensuring accountability, delivering justice for the victims within the scope of International Humanitarian Law, and applicable domestic law.
The International Criminal Court has explicitly criminalized and prosecuted attacks on humanitarian workers, medical/ relief personnel, and civilians as amounting to war crimes, as long as the victims were not directly participating in the hostilities. The rationale is that humanitarian workers are protected persons in any armed conflicts.
No one is above the law, any attack on any humanitarian worker should never go unpunished as this amounts to the most serious crimes of international concern. States should expressly create avenues for deterrence, recognition and redress from these crimes.
Proper reporting channel and independent investigations should be established. This accountability should extend post- incident support to the families for the victims.Â
The call to action is for the states to amplify the perspectives of survivors and witnesses of attacks, support independent, impartial investigations support justice mechanisms for the victims and condemn any attacks on humanitarian workers. Any attack on any Humanitarian worker is an attack on the entire Humanity.
Forever in our hearts. Ismael Mulindwa.
The author is the International Humanitarian Law Manager at the Uganda Red Cross Society.
Email: mtusubira@redcrossug.org