Red Cross organisations reiterate commitment to Africa

The IFRC and the ICRC on Thursday urged the international community to maintain support for humanitarian relief efforts in Africa, despite pressure to focus on the escalating refugee crisis in Central Asia. Addressing a joint press conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, said the ICRC would ensure its commitment to Africa did not weaken as a result of competing demands from the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries. "Approximately 40 percent of ICRC's operational expenditure is in Africa. We have a strong, traditional commitment to Africa," he said. Astrid Heiberg, President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, emphasised the need to continue support to projects which tackle the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. "Let us not forget that almost as many people will die in Africa this year from HIV/AIDS as died in the entire Vietnam war - almost three million people," she said. Heiberg and Kellenberger are visiting Kenya to see how the HIV/AIDS epidemic has affected the country, and are due to visit an HIV/AIDS programme in Kisumu, western Kenya, on Friday, 5 October. The Federation said in a statement on Thursday that it had launched a major increase in activities to tackle HIV/AIDS in Africa, and was aiming to mobilise some two million trained community volunteers throughout the continent over the next 10 years. An estimated 600 people die in Kenya each day as a result of the disease, it added.