Round-up: Red Cross responds to emergencies in Iraq and Libya

The Round-up offers a weekly sample of what our sister Red Cross Societies are working on around the world.

IRAQ:  The governorates of Al Anbar and Babil in Iraq have been the scene of heavy acts of violence since the beginning of the year, causing mass displacement among vulnerable communities while hundreds of other families were left behind in their besieged hometowns. Despite the escalation of violence, Iraqi Red Crescent staff and volunteers continued delivering relief services to the communities most affected, and succeeded in evacuating hundreds of families trapped in their homes. Iraqi Red Crescent volunteers have been at the forefront of relief efforts since the onset of the renewed violence. Activities have focused on providing access to food and other non-food items, or in evacuating those trapped inside their houses in besieged cities to which other humanitarian organisations could not have access.

LIBYA: As the acts of violence continue to take place in different Libyan cities, forcing thousands of people to flee their hometowns in search of a safe refuge across the border or inside the country, Libyan Red Crescent volunteers have kept up their rescue and relief efforts.  Since the onset of the Libyan crisis, Libyan Red Crescent volunteers have been mobilized and deployed to respond to the urgent emerging needs of the vulnerable population, whether in evacuating them or in providing them with urgent assistance and basic needs such as food, medicines and psycho-social support.