Welcome to the Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you. It’s a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work…

CAMBODIA: Flooding continues in Southeast Asia due to heavy monsoon season rains, ravaging many provinces in Cambodia. The Cambodian Red Cross is working to evacuate people to higher ground, compiling lists of evacuees, and distributing relief aid to over 36,000 families.

THAILAND: Almost 2.3 million people have been affected as heavy flooding has washed its way down from northern provinces to the outskirts of Bangkok. The Thai Red Cross has been responding to these floods since they started in June, and so far have reached more than 500,000 people in 32 of the 60 flooded provinces.

SWITZERLAND: At the Assembly of the ICRC earlier this week, the organization’s governing body appointed Peter Maurer as the ICRC’s next president. Maurer is currently Switzerland’s State secretary for foreign affairs, and succeeds Jakob Kellenberger, the ICRC president since 2000, who expressed the wish to retire at the end of his third term.

COLUMBIA: On the afternoon of October 17th, 10-year-old Nhora Valentina Muñoz was handed over to the ICRC in a rural part of Arauca, after 18 days in captivity. The ICRC has been active in Colombia for 30 years and has regularly helped facilitate the release of persons deprived of their liberty.

GLOSSARY:

ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies