Gavi statement on protecting health workers and vaccine access in armed conflict settings
Geneva, 8 December 2025 – Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance condemns in the strongest terms the targeting, harm and obstruction of health workers, and the disruption of essential health and immunisation services, in areas affected by armed conflict and violence.
In armed conflict settings across the world – including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Ukraine – violence against health workers and health systems has wreaked incalculable loss. Medical personnel providing life-saving health care, including immunisation, have been and continue to be killed, injured, abducted, detained, tortured or obstructed from reaching the communities they serve. Medical supplies, hospitals/facilities and transports have been destroyed. These attacks not only endanger those who provide care, but also deprive millions of people, especially children, of protection against preventable diseases. When a health worker is killed, their loss is suffered not only by family and friends, but also by the communities who would have depended on them for decades of life-saving health care.
Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools we have to save lives, restore health systems and offer hope in the face of crisis. For vaccines to reach those who need them most, medical personnel, supplies, units and transports must be protected, and access to health services must be safeguarded at all times, in line with international humanitarian law.
Gavi stands with its partners – including governments, UN agencies, and civil society – in calling for the protection of health workers, facilities and vaccine supply chains everywhere.