Red Cross says budget higher because of protracted conflicts

UNITED NATIONS – A senior Red Cross official says its proposed budget this year is 80 percent higher than in 2010 because of increasingly protracted conflicts and growing humanitarian needs.

Dominik Stillhart, operations director at the International Committee of the Red Cross, told reporters Tuesday that "protracted crisis is definitely the new normal, without any doubt."

He says one reason is that while all conflicts today have local roots, they are "very often manipulated by regional powers, as well as global powers, who fundamentally disagree about what the solution should be."

Stillhart says the result is that "many of these conflicts go on for quite some time."

He says the average length of Red Cross presence in its 10 largest operations today — including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Congo — is 37 years.