The United States will provide $200 million in humanitarian aid to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) for disaster response and humanitarian assistance.
This is stated in the message released by the US State Department.
About 133 million dollars of the provided funding will be transferred to the 2026 global program of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and 70 million dollars to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The State Department emphasized that the funding corresponds to the new US approach to humanitarian assistance, which aims to provide a more flexible and rapid response to international crises.
According to the release, the mechanism enables partner organizations to respond to both current crises and new disasters by leveraging existing resources and bypassing lengthy procurement and other administrative procedures.
According to the report, the IFRC, which unites the national societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent operating in different countries of the world and has about 18 million trained volunteers, is often one of the first to provide assistance to the affected population in the event of disasters and emergencies. US funding will help rapidly expand the response capabilities of these organizations if needed.
At the same time, support to the ICRC is intended to provide vital aid to populations affected by armed conflict. The State Department noted that the organization's neutral and unbiased status allows access to people in front lines and hard-to-reach areas, which other humanitarian organizations often cannot reach.
The department emphasized that pre-access financing through trusted international partners allows for a faster and more efficient response to humanitarian crises while reducing the administrative burden.
