At headquarters, staff came together on the Esplanade to honour the memory of our 34 colleagues who died in 2018 as a result of a security incident, accident, illness or tragic event. White ribbons were available for colleagues to hang on trees in front of the Carlton; many bore the names of colleagues who died while on duty.
“It is important to mark this day by together remembering all our colleagues who left us this year,” said Director-General Yves Daccord.
“It is important to take a moment to think about who they were as friends, colleagues, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers – and to also think about their families and their teams.”
Yves paid tribute to our four colleagues who were killed this year in the line of duty: Abdulhafid Yusuf Ibrahim; Hanna Lahoud; Saifura Hussaini Ahmad Khorsa and Hauwa Mohammed Liman.
Abdulhafid, who was 32 and married with two young children, was killed by a car bomb shortly after he left the ICRC office in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Wednesday 28 March. A communication and legal liaison officer, he had only joined the delegation five months earlier.
Hanna, who was 37, was shot and killed in Taiz, Yemen, on Saturday 21 April. Passionate about the Red Cross mission, Hanna devoted almost two decades to the ICRC and the Lebanese Red Cross where he started out as a first aid volunteer.
Saifura and Hauwa died separately but their stories will forever be intertwined. The young midwives were abducted in Rann, north-east Nigeria, in March this year. Six months later, Saifura, who was 25 and a mother to two young children, was brutally murdered by her captors. Hauwa, who was 24, suffered the same horrific fate a month later.
A minute’s silence was then held for all those we lost this year.
Yves took a moment to thank everyone who had worked tirelessly to support colleagues and the families of those who died. He also thanked all those who participated in the recent consultation process to improve the way we pay tribute to our dead.
“We received several proposals and have now taken a number of decisions,” he said. “We recognize that we need to have a memorial here at headquarters, bearing the names of those we have lost, so that we may honour their memory either as a collective or individually.
“We will also have an online memorial to allow families, friends and colleagues to pay tribute. We will also continue to have memorials at delegation level, and we will make sure that Remembrance Day remains an important date in our calendar.”
Thirty other colleagues who lost their lives to accidents, disease or other tragic events were also remembered. Sarah Epprecht and Antoine Grand, both deputy directors of operations, read out their names.
On 17 December 1996, six ICRC delegates were murdered in the Chechen town of Novye Atagi. This date is now commemorated every year as our Remembrance Day – wTwenty years on from that unprecedented attack, this year’s Remembrance Day is dedicated to the memory of all ICRC colleagues killed in action since 1996.
To mark this anniversary, a photo exhibition entitled Ray of Hope: A Story of Commitment is on display in the Place des Nations in Geneva. It focuses on the places where our colleagues have lost their lives in the past 20 years and offers visitors the chance to appreciate the humanitarian commitment of these exceptional men and women whose lives were cut tragically short.
A Remembrance Day march will also start from the Place des Nations. All staff in Geneva are invited to take part. Former and retired staff members will also join us, as will staff from the Secretariat of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The march will follow the same route as the solidarity march that took place in 1996 after the events in Novye Atagi. It will arrive at the headquarters esplanade, where Peter will give a short speech. A moment of silence will be observed before Karim Wasfi, the conductor of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, performs a composition of his choice on the cello.
The commemorations will conclude tomorrow evening at headquarters with an awards ceremony, presided over by Guillaume Barazzone, mayor of Geneva. The Genève Reconnaissante medal was founded in 1932. In awarding it to the ICRC, the City of Geneva is expressing its gratitude and paying tribute to the exemplary humanitarian commitment of every ICRC staff member. The medal will be accepted by three staff members on behalf of us all: Aina Shakhidova, Dibeh Fakhr and Antoine Balabeau. They will be accompanied by the president Peter Maurer.
hen our thoughts turn to all our colleagues killed in the line of duty or as a result of an accident, illness or other tragic event.
2014 has been a dark year for the institution: Siradjou was killed in March by armed men in N’Dele, in north-eastern Central African Republic; Michael was murdered in Sirte, Libya, in June; and Laurent was killed by shellfire in October just outside our sub-delegation in Donetsk, Ukraine.
At headquarters, President Peter Maurer hosted a private ceremony for the families of Michael and Laurent where he presented them with an ICRC medal.
ICRC representatives travelled from the Central African Republic to Cameroon to present a medal to the family of Siradjou.
“The award of a medal is a mark of the ICRC’s profound recognition for personal commitment and dedication to humanitarian action,” said Peter Maurer.
“No medal can bring someone back to life; no medal can relieve the grief of a loved one. This award is no more than a symbolic gesture by which the ICRC recognizes the loss of our colleagues.”
It is a time for reflection and remembrance.
At headquarters, we gather as we do every year in the 'Garden of Remembrance' to light a candle and share a moment of silent reflection or prayer.
Many delegations have their own ritual to honor the memory of our deceased.
May the memory of our dear colleagues be present in our hearts!
Caroline Welch-Ballentine
Director of Human Resources
Yves Daccord
General Manager
Remembrance
Geneva International Conference Centre. Memorial ceremony to Nadisha Yasassri Ranmuthu, killed on July 22nd 2003 in Iraq.
Baghdad, ICRC delegation. Mourning following the killing of Nadisha Ranmuthu on Hilla-Baghdad road.