Red Cross chief Mardini: donors support Ukraine at the expense of African countries
Robert Mardini, Director General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has said that African countries suffer because of the lack of financing and at the same time a great number of Western countries support Ukraine. The head of the organisation hopes that such a trend can be reversed.
“It is ironic that humanitarian work in Ukraine is very well supported by donors, but the downside is that the rest of the world is facing underfunding,” Mardini told RIA Novosti on 22 February.
He said that many humanitarian actors in Africa, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Latin America today lack funding from the ICRC. This situation applies not only to the committee, but also to most other humanitarian organisations such as the UN and international NGOs.
On 11 February, the Danish Emergency Relief Agency reported that their field hospitals and tents with built-in heating could not help those affected by the massive earthquake in Turkey because they had been sent to Ukraine. According to the agency, the emergency agency’s mobile hospital was donated to Ukraine at the start of a special military operation.
On 8 February, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that since the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the alliance countries had provided Kiev with $120bn worth of assistance. According to him, this includes both military and economic and humanitarian aid.
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