2010 to 2011 have seen a major series of crises which have affected ever increasing numbers of people. Demand for humanitarian assistance has reached an unprecedented level at a time when long term conflicts continue unabated. The challenge for the ICRC in the year ahead, will be to meet these needs, while confronting significant financial pressure.

Geneva (ICRC) – 2010 to 2011 have seen a major series of crises which have affected ever increasing numbers of people. Demand for humanitarian assistance has reached an unprecedented level at a time when long term conflicts continue unabated, according to the ICRC’s Annual Report launched in Geneva today (26th May 2011). The challenge for the ICRC in the year ahead, will be to meet these needs, while confronting significant financial pressure.

Pierre Krähenbuehl, Director of Operations at ICRC, said: “2010 was a year of major humanitarian needs worldwide. We were confronted with a combination of effects of protracted armed conflicts such as Afghanistan, Sudan, and Colombia and a series of new crises of which the one in Pakistan, with the combination of violence and floods, was a particularly dramatic one.”

In 2010, ICRC distributed food to over 4.9 million around the world. Its water, sanitation and construction activities helped some 10 million people. Medical and health related activities continued to be a fundamental feature of the ICRC’s work benefiting some 5.2 million people globally (a detailed analysis can be found in the ICRC Annual Report 2010 – http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/annual-report/index.jsp)