The British Red Cross Disaster Fund payment will support the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Uzbekistan Red Crescent Society, who are responding to the humanitarian crisis. The ICRC has doubled the number of its international staff in southern Kyrgyzstan working in healthcare, forensics, and emergency relief. They plan to deliver food, water and other essential items to 100,000 people in the coming month. 40 tonnes of emergency food relief arrived yesterday in the city of Andijan, near the Kyrgyz border.

Pete Garratt, British Red Cross head of disaster relief, said: “People are in desperate need of immediate relief and medical assistance. There has been a huge population movement, and people have had to leave at short notice without many basic supplies. Over 70,000 adult refugees have been registered by the authorities, in addition to thousands of children, and we know there are many thousands of people still hoping to cross the border. In addition to the 40 temporary camps have been set up around the border, there are many people in need of assistance in Osh and the south of Kyrgyzstan.”

The ICRC and the Red Crescent Society of Kyrgyzstan have worked together to assist 16 medical facilities caring for more than 1,130 injured people in the past week. During a lull in the shooting near Jalalabad, a small team of ICRC doctors visited the city's main hospital, where they provided additional medical supplies to staff, who were treating around 60 wounded patients.

The British Red Cross has a long standing relationship with the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent, supporting several long-term health and social care programmes.