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ICRC Inspired: Drones, Data and Humanitarian Action
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Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, are a valued component of the ICRC’s air operations, used to increase efficiency and access populations around the world. Despite ongoing challenges, a drone’s reliability to deliver positive impact in humanitarian operations continues to be explored and measured.
Air Operations (AirOps) has been central to the ICRC’s humanitarian activities since the 1930s, when Marcel Junod first used aircraft to evacuate wounded Ethiopian soldiers during the conflict with Italian forces.
Following World War II, the AirOps expansion began in earnest with the purchase of a few airplanes. But when a rash of post-independence conflicts erupted in parts of Africa in the 1970s, the ICRC shifted to leasing and chartering aircraft, allowing the creation of a larger fleet with greater flexibility.