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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is laying off about 1,800 people. In addition, 26 of the 350 branches worldwide will be closed, the ICRC informed the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday.

This corresponds to 7.4 percent of all ICRC locations, the organization with its headquarters in Geneva further announced. Among them are, among others the branches in Mauritania and in Greece. The presence is also strongly reduced in a few large cities such as the Senegalese capital Dakar or the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The West Swiss Radio and Television (RTS) reported on it for the first time.

The Geneva-based humanitarian organization has been struggling with liquidity problems for several months. The ICRC expected it would fall several hundred million short of the 2.8 billion Swiss francs in donations needed this year. As early as April, the ICRC leadership therefore approved cuts of CHF 430 million for 2023 and early 2024.

The ICRC drew particular attention to the difficulties faced by all humanitarian organizations in raising sufficient funds to meet their needs. As a result, operations in many of the current humanitarian crises are underfunded. Adapting to this reality, the activities and priorities of the ICRC will be reviewed in the coming months. (oo/sda)