Interview: War in Gaza sets “dangerous precedent” for aid worker safety, says Spanish nurse

MADRID, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) — The war in Gaza is setting a “dangerous precedent” for the safety of humanitarian aid workers, a Spanish pediatric nurse who has worked in various conflict zones for over a decade said in an interview with Xinhua.
According to Ruth Conde, the security of both international and national staff is currently one of the greatest challenges facing humanitarian assistance, including in Gaza.
“What scares me, in this sense, is the precedent that is being set, which is very dangerous for present and future conflicts,” she said, emphasizing the possible violation of the Geneva Convention on the protection of humanitarian workers in conflict zones.
Conde has recently returned from the Gaza strip, and had also worked in India, Colombia, Yemen and Guatemala.
Since 2010, Conde has combined her work as a pediatric emergency nurse in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela with humanitarian missions around the world. She told Xinhua on World Humanitarian Day, observed annually on Aug.19, that “you witness firsthand very tough, very extreme situations, which are often beyond fiction.”
The nurse, who works with the non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders, has also been on missions in countries such as Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Niger.
In Niger, her first mission was a health emergency due to malaria in the country, which especially affected children. She emphasized that “our vocation, our work, consists basically in caring.”
Another challenge facing humanitarian assistance is access, whether due to geographic or purely political constraints, she said.
“Many times, when you are in an unstable area, a conflict zone, both the governments themselves and armed groups produce a series of restrictions that do not allow you to access where the patients are,” she explained.
Legislation at local level is also a challenge, according to Conde. “We have to understand the context and adapt our activities to the needs of the population, and also to the legislation.”
The number of aid workers killed more than doubled from 118 in 2022 to 261 in 2023. Meanwhile, 78 aid workers were kidnapped and 196 wounded worldwide, according to figures released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. ■