On Monday United Nations member states will gather to discuss the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is urging the international community to put the Afghan people at the heart of their deliberations.
During a four-day visit to Afghanistan, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, has called on the international community to continue to provide humanitarian support for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world with more than 18 million people in need of assistance. We have treated more than 40,000 people wounded by weapons in June, July and August this year.
The ICRC is relieved to see Kabul avoid what could have been devastating urban warfare, but we remain mindful of the thousands of civilians wounded and displaced in recent fighting in other urban centres.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk as fighting intensifies in and around Kunduz, Lashkar Gah, Kandahar, and other Afghan cities. The ICRC is calling on both parties to the conflict for immediate restraint. The ICRC calls for civilians and vital infrastructure such as hospitals to be protected from attack and any collateral damage caused by fighting in populated areas.
A new study by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza shows that 80% of Gaza’s population live much of their lives in the dark, with only 10-12 hours of electricity per day. This issue becomes extra problematic during the peak of summer and poses a threat to the health and daily life for Gazans, with the majority of the population being unable to refrigerate food and wastewater treatment plants unable to operate.
More than half a decade of conflict has exhausted Yemenis and transformed the country into the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Access to water, food and basic services is becoming harder for most Yemenis even as funding for humanitarian operations has fallen sharply.
International Committee of the Red Cross teams are working to assess the needs of civilians who are bearing the brunt of the escalation in violence in Gaza and Israel. As the death toll and injuries rise, the ICRC is looking to ramp up its humanitarian response.
People in the Gaza Strip are coping with an alarming increase in reported COVID-19 cases, with more than 1,000 new infections each day for the past couple of weeks.
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, called on the international community to come together to find a “new approach” and long-term solutions as he wrapped a five-day visit to Syria.