Michael Greub, head of the sub-delegation in Misrata, Libya was killed on Wednesday 4th June 2014 in the city of Sirte. Armed men opened fire on his vehicle as he left a meeting at around noon local time.
Speaking at the ICRC in Geneva today, Magne Barth, Deputy Head of Operations, said:
00:00 "My message to the family on behalf of the ICRC is one of deep condolences. We share their grief and sorrow and shock for what has happened. The delegate, their family member, worked for the ICRC, for humanitarian objectives only. They are going through difficult days and we give them all our support they need to come through this as best as possible.
00:22 The ICRC has temporarily suspended its operations and movements in Libya, we need time to review the situation security wise, to care for the team, to support the family, and to take the immediate measures after a crisis like this. We have suspended temporarily and we are not pulling out of Libya, and we will continue to support the victims of violence and conflict in Libya in the future.
00:44 It’s a shocking attack. We are there for no other reason than supporting the victims who need us there. We work with the Libyan Red Crescent. We work with a strong team on the ground. And a direct attack on us, on one of our staff, is first and foremost shocking. It's illegal, and against international law, but it's also devastating in terms of possible consequences for the victims and the beneficiaries. We strongly condemn this and we will have to think thoroughly on what comes next.
01:22 There are a number of things we don't know at all. We don't know who was behind the attack. Nobody has claimed it. We can speculate but we don't know. Secondly we don’t know if this was targeted at ICRC as an institution. The fact is that one of our staff members, being part of a team, was directly attacked and killed. That's what we have …and then we need to work further to find what conclusions can be drawn from that. But we cannot at this stage say there was an attack on the ICRC as an institution.
01:50 When we have a security situation like this, with this shocking event taking place, there are certain things which need to come in the right order. We care now about the family who lost someone, we care about the other colleagues who were there for part of that shocking incident. We have a team on the ground who need our support, and we need time to analyze. Then the different decisions are coming. The ICRC has no intention to leave the victims of Libya behind. We continue to work for the victims in Libya. But the way we are going to do it and in what form needs to be sorted out when we have had time to review and analyze. The first priority now is to support the people directly involved."
02:29 Photograph of Michael Greub
02:44 ENDS