IFRC Weekly News

In this episode, we focus on Sri Lanka, one month after Cyclone Ditwa struck the island nation, triggering the worst flooding the country has seen in a decade. Torrential rains, landslides, and widespread flooding affected all 25 districts, leaving tens of thousands of people displaced and many families struggling to rebuild their lives.

In this episode, we’re taking a step back to look at a year of enormous change and challenge for the humanitarian sector. Needs continued to rise in almost every region, while funding became more stretched, making it harder than ever to reach communities in crisis. Throughout all of this, IFRC teams and Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers have been responding to conflicts, disasters and emergencies, often in extremely difficult conditions.

In this episode, we’re turning the spotlight onto some of the humanitarian crises that rarely make the news - emergencies where needs are rising, funding is shrinking, and attention is scarce. These are the crises that are not on the global radar, even as millions of people continue to face catastrophic consequences.

In this episode, we turn our attention to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (or DRC), where earlier this month the Ministry of Health officially declared the country’s 16th Ebola outbreak over.The IFRC and the DRC Red Cross played a critical role in the response — deploying volunteers to help contain the epidemic.But while this outbreak has ended, the risk of resurgence remains. The IFRC is now calling for an urgent scale-up of community-based surveillance, stronger infection prevention and control, and long-term investment in local health systems to help prevent future outbreaks.India speaks with Alex Lock, who has been on the ground in the DRC for the past few weeks.

In this episode, we look at the humanitarian situation in the central Mediterranean following the IFRC’s decision to close its service point on board the Ocean Viking and end its partnership with SOS Méditerranée. After four years at sea, the mission has helped save more than 8,600 lives, providing critical medical care, first aid, and psychosocial support to people fleeing danger.

We speak with Anna Bowen, IFRC’s Humanitarian Diplomacy Coordinator for Europe, who explains the funding and political challenges behind this difficult decision, and why civilian search and rescue remains a humanitarian necessity as thousands continue to risk their lives at sea.

Anna also shares how the IFRC will continue to support migrants and refugees across Europe through its route-based approach, and why stronger protection and coordinated action are urgently needed to save lives.

In this episode, we look at the severe floods and landslides that have swept across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, affecting millions of people and destroying homes, livelihoods, and critical infrastructure. Rising health risks, damaged roads, and ongoing rains are making the response increasingly challenging.

We speak with John Entwistle, IFRC’s Head of Country Cluster Delegation for South Asia, who joins us from Colombo to share the latest on the situation, the support Red Cross volunteers are providing, and the priorities for the weeks and months ahead -from relief distributions to health services, cash assistance, and long-term recovery.

John also highlights how preparedness and early action helped local teams respond quickly, and why climate-related disasters like this demand sustained global attention and support.

In this episode, we look at a major vaccination drive now underway across Gaza and Lebanon, where IFRC and Red Cross and Red Crescent teams are working to reach children who have missed routine immunizations due to conflict, displacement, and economic collapse.

Health systems across the region are under immense strain, leaving many children unprotected from diseases like measles and polio. Backed by funding from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the IFRC is supporting the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the Lebanese Red Cross to deliver vaccines through primary health centers, mobile teams, and outreach in hard-to-reach communities.

We speak with Tasneem Obaid, IFRC’s Immunization Senior Officer in MENA, who joins us to share the program’s priorities, the challenges volunteers face on the ground, and the early results showing how vital this work is for families living through crisis.

In this episode, we turn our attention to COP 30 - the United Nations climate conference taking place this year in Belem, Brazil. As world leaders, scientists, humanitarians and activists gather to negotiate critical climate commitments, the stakes are higher than ever for communities at the front lines of the climate crisis.

The IFRC is working to ensure that communities on the front lines of the climate crisis are heard, and that global commitments translate into real action. We speak with Ninni Ikkala Nyman, IFRC’s climate lead, who joins us from inside the conference to share key priorities, major highlights from the past week, and what outcomes we hope to see as COP 30 draws to a close.

In this episode, we focus on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and what may be the hardest winter for millions of Ukrainians since the beginning of the conflict. The combination of relentless attacks, rolling blackouts, colder forecasts, and deepening economic hardships is leaving entire communities in the dark and cold. With prices rising and incomes shrinking, many people will face an impossible decision: choose between food, medicine and other essentials. This is why the Red Cross teams are scaling up for winter across Ukraine. In this episode, we speak with IFRC's Diana Hohol, who supports the IFRC response in Ukraine from Bucarest, Romania.

First, a powerful earthquake struck Cebu at the end of September. Then Typhoon Kalmaegi battered the same region - and just days later, Super Typhoon Fungwong swept across the country, leaving a trail of destruction. Millions of people have been affected, with hundreds of thousands still in evacuation centres. The country has faced disaster after disaster - testing the resilience of communities and stretching the limits of front-line humanitarian responders. In this episode, we’re speaking with the IFRC’s Ellie van Baaren in Cebu City to learn more about this extraordinary series of disasters.