NATIONAL SOCIETY PROFILE
The Comoros Red Crescent was established in 1982 and was recognized by ministerial order as an auxiliary to the public authorities in the humanitarian field in 1985. It was admitted into the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in 2005. The Comoros Red Crescent is at the forefront of response alongside the Civil Protection Agency and is the leading actor in emergency and disaster situations in the country.
The Comoros Red Crescent has its national headquarters in the city of Moroni, with three regional branches located on the islands of Ngazidja (Grande Comore), Ndzwani (Anjouan) and Mwali (Mohéli). These regional branches coordinate interventions and supervise local committees at an island level, and there are also intervention units within villages at a peripheral level. There are seven department heads supervised by a Program Coordinator. Services and Supports Coordinator oversees logistics, finance, and HR. The organization operates through three regional committees and 180 local committees across the islands, with approximately 3,000 volunteers involved in village-level activities.
The Comoros Red Crescent warehouse was built in 2013 with the support of the French Agency for Development, and it has a storage capacity of 80 tonnes of relief equipment. The National Society’s priorities are:
• Building its capacity
• Improving the health of vulnerable populations, particularly by establishing community-based health programmes
• Carrying out risk and disaster management
• Promotion and dissemination of information on international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles and values
The Comoros Red Crescent is active in the fields of community-based health and first aid, which includes encouraging communities to adopt hygiene measures that can help prevent epidemics, as part of the malaria and cholera control programme alongside the health authorities. As part of disaster risk management, it carries out vulnerability and capacity assessments at community level, to help strengthen community resilience.
In 2022, the National Society reached more than 316,000 people through its disaster response and early recovery programmes.