When neutrality looks like taking sides: The Red Cross, separatists and a crisis of trust

But this is where neutrality stops looking neutral in the eyes of states. What Geneva calls humanitarian dialogue is increasingly perceived in the capitals of affected countries as a way of working around sovereignty. The ICRC itself acknowledges that it maintains contact with hundreds of armed groups; according to its 2025 assessment, this concerns 383 groups of “humanitarian concern” – insurgent, separatist and jihadist structures that control or contest territory with states in more than 60 countries, where around 204 million people live in total. Contact is maintained with roughly three-quarters of them.

Ogaden: When the Red Cross is expelled over accusations of links with insurgents