GENEVA: Dozens of Red Cross staff and volunteers gathered Wednesday for a candlelight vigil for more than 30 of their colleagues killed in 2024, during the deadliest year on record for humanitarians.
More than 100 people crowded outside the headquarters of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva, most donning red vests and carrying candles.
The tribute came as a Palestine Red Crescent volunteer was killed Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, which “brings the total number of IFRC network members killed worldwide this year to 32,” the group said in a statement.
“Alaa Al-Derawi, a member of PRCS’s emergency medical team, was fatally shot in the Khan Younis area of Gaza, shortly after transporting patients for treatment. He was returning to base when the incident occurred,” it said.
In Geneva, standing in the stinging cold in front of a banner emblazoned with the words “Protect Humanity,” some held up pictures of the staff and volunteers killed this year while performing their humanitarian duties.
“We are shocked. We are appalled,” Nena Stoiljkovic, the IFRC’s Under Secretary-General for Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization, told the gathering.
“We are not a target,” added IFRC official Frank Mohrhauer.
Following a minute of silence, an IFRC staff member solemnly read out the names of those killed.
They were among a record number of aid workers who have perished around the world this year.
Already last month, the United Nations said the record number of 280 humanitarians killed in 2023 had been surpassed, and the number has kept climbing.
Israel’s devastating war in Gaza has especially been driving up the numbers, but aid workers were also subject to violence and killings in a range of countries including Sudan and Ukraine.
“2024 is now the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers, especially for local staff and volunteers worldwide,” Stoiljkovic said.
“This grim milestone has not spared the IFRC network,” she said, pointing to more “heartbreaking news” just last week when another Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer was killed, and eight others injured in an attack.
“They were rescuing people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance,” she said.
Stoiljkovic told AFP that the event, which came before International Volunteers’ Day on Thursday, provided “a moment to reflect” on the towering losses with “sadness and compassion.”
Red Cross marks record numbers of humanitarians killed in 2024
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Red Cross marks record numbers of humanitarians killed in 2024
- “2024 is now the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers, especially for local staff and volunteers worldwide,” Stoiljkovic says
Nobel laureate Machado says US helped her leave Venezuela, vows return
- Machado emerged on a hotel balcony in Oslo to cheering supporters early Thursday
- “We did get support from the United States government to get here,” Machado said
OSLO: Nobel Peace laureate Maria Corina Machado said on Thursday that the United States helped her get to Norway from hiding in Venezuela, expressing support for US military action against her country and vowing to return home.
Machado, who vanished in January after challenging the rule of President Nicolas Maduro, emerged on a hotel balcony in Oslo to cheering supporters early Thursday after several days of confusion over her whereabouts.
“We did get support from the United States government to get here,” Machado told a press conference when asked by AFP about whether Washington had helped.
The Wall Street Journal reported that she wore a wig and a disguise on the high-risk journey, leaving her hide-out in a Caracas suburb on Monday for a coastal fishing village, where she took a fishing skiff across the Caribbean Sea to Curacao.
The newspaper said the US military was informed to avoid the boat being targeted by airstrikes. Once on the island, she took a private jet to Oslo early on Wednesday.
Machado thanked those who “risked their lives” to get her to Norway but it was not immediately clear how or when she will return to Venezuela, which has said it would consider her a fugitive if she left.
“Of course, the risk of going back, perhaps it’s higher, but it’s always worthwhile. And I’ll be back in Venezuela, I have no doubt,” she added.
Machado has been hailed for her fight for democracy but also criticized for aligning herself with US President Donald Trump, to whom she has dedicated her Nobel, and for inviting foreign intervention in her country.
- Military build-up -
The United States has launched a military build-up in the Caribbean in recent weeks and deadly strikes on what Washington says are drug-smuggling boats.
“I believe every country has the right to defend themselves,” Machado told reporters Thursday.
“I believe that President Trump’s actions have been decisive to reach the point where we are right now, in which the regime is weaker than ever, because the regime previously thought that they could do anything,” she continued.
Late Wednesday, Trump said the United States had seized a “very large” oil tanker near Venezuela, which Caracas denounced as “blatant theft.”
Maduro maintains that US operations are aimed at toppling his government and seizing Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Machado first appeared on a balcony of the Grand Hotel in the middle of the night, waving and blowing kisses to supporters chanting “libertad” (“freedom“) below.
On the ground, she climbed over metal barriers to get closer to her supporters, many of whom hugged her and presented her with rosaries.
She said she has missed much of her children’s lives while hiding, including graduations and weddings.
- ‘ Political risk’ -
Machado won the Peace Prize for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
She has accused Maduro of stealing Venezuela’s July 2024 election, from which she was banned — a claim backed by much of the international community.
She last appeared in public on January 9 in Caracas, where she protested Maduro’s inauguration for his third term.
The decision to leave Venezuela and join the Nobel festivities in Oslo comes at both personal and political risk.
“She risks being arrested if she returns even if the authorities have shown more restraint with her than with many others, because arresting her would have a very strong symbolic value,” said Benedicte Bull, a professor specializing in Latin America at the University of Oslo.
While Machado is the ” undisputed” leader of the opposition, “if she were to stay away in exile for a long time, I think that would change and she would gradually lose political influence,” Bull said.
In her acceptance speech read by one of her daughters Wednesday, Machado denounced kidnappings and torture under Maduro’s tenure, calling them “crimes against humanity” and “state terrorism, deployed to bury the will of the people.”
