00:00And moving on from Gaza to Congo, South Sudan to Myanmar, attacks on humanitarian workers are on the up as
00:06funding for their day job is going down.
00:09And as the EU prepares its long-term kitty from 2028 to 2034, a fight is unfolding over how development,
00:17humanitarian aid and geopolitical priorities can be financed.
00:21For more, we sat down with the UN Aid Chief, Tom Fletcher, who passed through Brussels for the EU's first
00:26ever conference on the protection of aid workers.
00:29And we started by asking how bad their plight was. Take a look.
00:33Oh, it's been terrible. I mean, we've lost a thousand colleagues in the last three years.
00:37And so the question being asked at this conference is how do we stop people killing aid workers?
00:42We shouldn't have to ask that question. I mean, the protection, the law is meant to be there to protect
00:46us.
00:46We've got our humanitarian neutrality. We should be able to go and deliver food, medicine, shelter without people killing us.
00:53And yet a thousand dead colleagues in three years.
00:55And the way people are being killed as well is even more vicious, more sophisticated.
00:59It's terrifying. And remember, you know, these are people who wake up, they kiss their kids, you know, goodbye in
01:04the morning.
01:04They're going out to work. They're going into danger. They know the dangers.
01:07And somewhere else there are other people thinking, how do we kill them?
01:10You know, I can't get my head into into the mindset of the people who are killing aid workers.
01:16And there's no accountability, never investigations. And the weapons, as you say, becoming more and more sophisticated, including I was
01:23in Kherson just recently in Ukraine.
01:25You know, the drones being used there, the AI drones that become more lethal as they get to the end
01:30of their battery life because they're programmed to find a target and to kill it.
01:33What role will AI play going forward? As you say, it's already playing a role in Ukraine, also in the
01:38war in Iran we've seen.
01:39In these new weapons right now, in Sudan, in Somalia, South Sudan, Lebanon, Gaza, so many of the places we're
01:46working, people are telling us right now that they are an atrocities lab, that these weapons are being developed, that
01:51they're, you know, like a lab.
01:53They're being experimented on with these new weapons. And it's been becoming terrifying because you're getting these kill zones in
02:00which nothing can survive.
02:03And meanwhile, that's happening on the ground. And here in Brussels, politically, just last week, we saw the EU summit.
02:08There was lots of squabbles over the EU budget. There's lots of talk of cutting development aid, overseas aid.
02:13What would that mean for these areas? And of course, fragile and conflicted states.
02:16It would be devastating. I mean, we faced enormous cuts already in the last few years.
02:22And as a result, at least a third of the sector has had to be cut.
02:25Now, I then go out to the field and I'm in places where I know that people will die because
02:31of the cuts, because of choices I'm then having to make.
02:34I was in Afghanistan recently where, you know, we've cut the clinics.
02:37And so therefore, women are cycling much further to get to give birth.
02:41And as a result, they're losing their kids because they're dying on the road.
02:44You know, again and again, I'm holding children who I know will probably not survive because of the cuts I'm
02:49being forced to make.
02:49So we desperately need this to be a budget of solidarity and generosity for the people in the world who
02:54need it most.
02:56And that's one of the reasons I'm here.
02:57And when you hear messages like those coming from France, from Marine Le Pen, whose party is doing very well
03:01in the polls ahead of those elections next year,
03:04she's saying that she'll be cutting funds even to Ukraine. What does that make you think?
03:09Look, I've been in Ukraine recently. I've seen how great the needs are.
03:12I was in Kiev overnight when they had a terrible night. Ballistic missiles, huge missiles landing all through the night.
03:17I was in Hassan up on the front line. I drove down what they call the road of death, where
03:23so many of these drones are attacking, hitting civilians.
03:27So those needs there are massive. And I think, you know, there are many politicians in Europe who make the
03:34case for cutting aid.
03:35But actually, if you're not dealing with these problems at source, then these problems will come in your direction.
03:39You can't put a tariff on a pandemic.
03:42You can't build a wall large enough to keep out the waves of migration that the climate crisis and the
03:48aid cuts will drive.
03:49So, you know, we'll keep on making the argument and hope that there are enough people of solidarity and generosity
03:55there to see it through.
03:56And just finally, we're coming. Well, it's already one year since the ceasefire in Gaza coming into the winter.
04:02What does the situation look like there?
04:03It's grim. And, you know, a year on from the ceasefire, we have managed to get the hunger levels down.
04:08So about half the number of people who were reporting going to bed hungry a year ago are saying they're
04:13still going to bed hungry.
04:14But that's still almost half the population going to bed hungry.
04:18You know, we're being blocked from bringing in the shelter materials for the winter, the tents that people need.
04:25We're being blocked from all the work we need to do to clear the rubble in Gaza, under which people's
04:30loved ones are still buried,
04:32so they can start to rebuild their homes and their lives.
04:34So some things are improving. We've got 100,000 kids back into school, but those kids should never have been
04:40out of school.
04:41And now we're facing into a really, really rough winter.
