Red Cross concerns about safety of staff and volunteers

(Vatican Radio) The plain red cross on a white background, logo of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is a well-known symbol of humanitarian support for civilians caught up in conflicts in countries around the world.

Yet ICRC officials have recently been raising the alarm that protection for their personnel is increasingly hard to guarantee. In 2015 alone, 24 Red Cross or Red Crescent staff – and many more volunteers – were killed in countries from Syria to Sudan and from Guinea to Guatemala.

Francesco Rocca is President of Italian Red Cross and Vice-President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent. He shared with Luca Attanasio his concerns that, for the first time in the history of modern conflicts, the humanitarian principles of the Geneva Convention are being ignored by both governments and non-state military organisations..

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