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Middle East & North Africa - ICRC Annual Report

31-12-2010 التقرير السنوي رقم 2010

In 2010, the ICRC maintained a strong presence and wide opera-tional reach in the Middle East and North Africa in order to meet the multiple urgent needs of victims of past and current conflicts in the region. Its broad range of protection and assistance activi-ties, carried out alongside preventive action based on advocacy for greater adherence to and respect for IHL, remained rooted in the organization’s neutral, independent and impartial approach to its strictly humanitarian mission.

Middle East & North Africa: Introduction 

In 2010, the ICRC maintained a strong presence and wide operational reach in the Middle East and North Africa in order to meet the multiple urgent needs of victims of past and current conflicts in the region. Its broad range of protection and assistance activities, carried out alongside preventive action based on advocacy for greater adherence to and respect for IHL, remained rooted in the organization’s neutral, independent and impartial approach to its strictly humanitarian mission.

In contexts experiencing ongoing or recurrent armed conflict, such as Iraq, Israel and the occupied territories and Yemen, the ICRC sought as a priority compliance with the provisions of IHL relative to the conduct of hostilities and/or occupation by the parties directly concerned. It fostered relations with government authorities, armed groups, influential sectors of civil society, religious circles and militant groups as an essential step to gaining acceptance of and support for its work. By nurturing these relations, the ICRC also aimed to enhance understanding of the humanitarian norms common to both IHL and Islamic law insofar as they reflect the universality of certain basic principles of humanity.

ICRC operations in Iraq, Israel and the occupied territories and Yemen remained among the organization’s largest worldwide. In Iraq, the ICRC continued to expand its presence and operational reach, enabling it to assess and respond to humanitarian needs in a more direct and targeted manner, including in previously inaccessible regions, although access and security constraints still hindered full implementation of planned activities. In the occupied Palestinian territory, the humanitarian consequences of certain policies and the impact of military operations were regularly taken up with the Israeli authorities with a view to at least tempering their effects. The ICRC’s dialogue with the Palestinian authorities and armed groups focused on the need to respect both Israeli and Palestinian civilians. In Yemen’s conflict-ravaged northern provinces, the organization decided in May to increase its budget to cover, together with the Yemen Red Crescent Society and despite a fragile security situation, the emergency needs of more conflict victims. However, insecurity and mobility restrictions sometimes impeded National Society/ICRC teams from working according to the Movement’s Fundamental Principles and from fully responding to the needs of thousands of conflict-affected people.

The ICRC endeavoured to ensure that people directly affected by armed conflict or the consequences of occupation had access to food, water, sanitation and medical care and that those deprived of their freedom were treated humanely. Restoring family links and deter-mining the fate of people unaccounted for from past and current con-flicts also remained core activities in many countries in the region. 

In Iraq, while some newly displaced people received emergency sup-plies, emphasis was placed on restoring or boosting livelihoods to foster sustainable self-reliance, rather than on direct aid. The roughly 73,600 beneficiaries of livelihood support included mainly farmers, returnees and residents in insecure and neglected rural regions as well as households headed by women and disabled people. With the focus of activities shifting to conflict-prone and neglected rural areas, more than 4.3 million Iraqis benefited from water and sanitation repair, maintenance and construction projects. In the same regions, primary health care centres received support to reinforce their ser-vices. Medical and surgical supplies enabled hospitals to better cope with sudden high influxes of wounded people, and Iraqi doctors and nurses obtained additional qualifications through a joint project with the health authorities to strengthen the Iraqi emergency services. 

In the occupied Palestinian territory, ICRC assistance focused on alleviating the plight of Palestinians suffering the worst effects of the occupation. Cash-for-work and livelihood-support projects benefited more than 58,000 destitute Palestinians, mainly in the Gaza Strip, but also West Bank residents affected by restrictions on access to their land. Water and sanitation services were improved for more than 662,000 people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, while life-saving medical and surgical supplies and equipment spare parts, as well as training, helped Gaza hospitals maintain essential services for the wounded and sick. The Palestine Red Crescent Society continued to carry out life-saving medical evacuations, with the ICRC supporting its emergency medical services together with the Norwegian Red Cross and, as a neutral intermediary, facilitating ambulance move-ments for emergency cases in need of treatment outside Gaza.

In Yemen, the ICRC constantly adapted activities conducted via “remote management” through Yemen Red Crescent volunteers and ICRC local staff. Despite the difficulties, some 157,000 people received food rations to cover their needs for one month and 156,000 people essential household items, most of them only once. During the second half of the year, however, residents in some northern parts of Amran province and IDPs and residents in the Sa’ada area benefited from regular assistance. Water and sanitation projects benefited some 161,500 people, mainly IDPs and residents in Sa’ada. About 4,000 people displaced by fighting in Shabwa province received water supplies in the first joint Yemen Red Crescent/ICRC emergency operation carried out from the ICRC’s newly opened office in Aden. The provision of medical supplies and training support kept primary health care centres treating the wounded and sick in the north operational.

In Lebanon, the ICRC continued to help the Lebanese Red Cross strengthen its ambulance and first-aid services and together they agreed on a joint contingency plan to respond to humanitarian needs in emergencies. Further staff training and medical equipment were provided to Palestine Red Crescent Society medical facilities in Lebanon to improve health services for the more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees in the country. Water and sanitation services were upgraded for some 340,000 people living in poorly served areas while in the neighbouring Syrian Arab Republic, 21,000 people in drought-ridden north-eastern provinces had their water supply improved to sustain their livelihoods. 

ICRC delegates visited people detained in Algeria, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, the occupied Palestinian territory, Qatar and Tunisia, and resumed visits in Yemen after an interruption of several years. The largest number of detainees visited was in Iraq, where, thanks to its expanded presence on the ground, the ICRC visited 32,801 detainees held in 81 facilities, mainly under the custody of the Iraqi central government, of whom 1,839 were monitored individually. Discussions with the Saudi authorities regarding access to Saudi nationals held by them after their transfer or release from detention/interment abroad remained at a standstill, while those with Bahrain’s authorities on a possible resumption of visits to detainees continued. Despite repeated requests, the ICRC had still not been granted access to an Israeli soldier held by Hamas by year-end. 

Delegates’ findings during visits and recommendations were shared confidentially with the detaining authorities, and in several cases the ICRC provided support to enhance detainees’ treatment and living conditions. For example, in Lebanon, the first phase of a project to boost water supply in the biggest prison was completed; in Mauritania, an emergency health programme in the main prison was initiated; and in Tunisia, progress was made on a pilot project to alleviate prison overcrowding. The specific needs of detained womenwere taken into account wherever possible. In Yemen, for example, female detainees continued to receive vocational training to enhance their prospects of reintegration after release. 

In addition to exchanging news through the ICRC with their families, 4,749 detainees, mainly in Israel, were able to receive family visits arranged by the organization. In Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, families of people in US custody in Afghanistan or in the internment facility at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba had contact with their relatives through teleconference calls facilitated by the ICRC. In all, 15,642 former inmates or their families received ICRC detention certificates, which sometimes qualified them to obtain State allowances. Several foreign detainees were repatriated under ICRC auspices after their release.

Demand remained high for ICRC tracing and RCM services as a means of restoring or maintaining contact with family members living in places where normal communications remained difficult. Several countries in the region, such as Egypt, Jordan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen, hosted large and sometimes rising num-bers of refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom were able to con-tact their families through the ICRC/National Society RCM network. 

In Yemen, some 3,800 irregular asylum seekers, mainly from the Horn of Africa, held in precarious conditions while awaiting deportation, continued to receive emergency assistance to ensure their health and well-being in a joint Yemen Red Crescent/ICRC operation. First visits to foreign nationals awaiting deportation in Algerian retention centres contributed to a greater understanding of their needs. Similarly, the ICRC engaged the Egyptian authorities in confidential discussions aimed at alleviating the plight of irregular African migrants heading for Israel. Following a joint Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran/ICRC assessment of the living conditions and needs of migrant communities in three Iranian provinces, the two organizations developed an assistance project with the Interior Ministry, to be implemented by the National Society in 2011.

Some 2,330 people, mainly in Egypt and Iraq, were issued ICRC travel documents to allow family reunification or resettlement in third countries. The ICRC also facilitated travel for Palestinians wishing to visit or be reunited with family members living in other parts of the occupied territory or in Jordan, as well as contacts between Syrian nationals in the occupied Golan and their families in the Syrian Arab Republic.  

Acting as a neutral intermediary, the ICRC pursued action to address unresolved cases of persons who had gone missing during past conflicts in the region, including support to help strengthen forensic capacities in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Lebanon. Significant progress was registered in addressing the issue in connection with the 1990–91 Gulf War and very positive steps were taken regarding the 1980–88 Iran-Iraq war in the framework of formal ICRC-facilitated mechanisms. This resulted, for example, in the first meetings between Iranian and Iraqi representatives since 2008 and the repatriation of remains of Iranian and Iraqi combat-ants. It also led to the first two joint operations by Iraqi and Kuwaiti forensic experts: the first, to exhume remains in Kuwait and subsequently repatriate the bodies of 55 Iraqi military personnel; the second, to locate mass graves possibly containing the remains of missing Kuwaitis in Nasariya, Iraq. In ongoing efforts to resolve the cases of combatants and civilians from both sides still missing in connection with the Western Sahara conflict, dialogue was pursued with the Moroccan authorities and the Polisario Front. 

The ICRC initiated mine-clearance operations in Iraq, lent its sup-port to a pilot mine-risk education initiative in both areas of the Western Sahara, signed a cooperation agreement on mine-risk education with the Iranian Red Crescent Society in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and contributed to a mine-awareness campaign in the Syrian Arab Republic. ICRC technical and material support was maintained for physical rehabilitation centres in Algeria, the Gaza Strip (centre renovated by the ICRC), Iraq and Yemen. In Iraq, where the number of disabled people continued to rise, physical rehabilitation centres either run or supported by the ICRC remained the main structures providing such services in the country. 

Promoting greater knowledge, acceptance and implementation of IHL throughout the region, in cooperation with the Cairo-based League of Arab States, remained the main task of the ICRC in Egypt. To this end, it continued to encourage adherence to IHL and promote its incorporation into national legislation, military training and doctrine and school and university curricula through regional seminars, providing written and audiovisual materials on IHL translated into Arabic for governments and key civil society groups throughout the region.  

National Societies were the ICRC’s main operational partners in several countries of the region. The primary aim was to enable them to strengthen their emergency-response capacities, focusing on ambulance services, first aid, tracing, restoring family links, mine action, and IHL dissemination. 

 coordination was maintained with Movement partners, UN agencies and other humanitarian players, particularly in conflict zones, in order to maximize impact, identify unmet needs and avoid duplication.


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