The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is deploying emergency experts to Egypt and Tunisia to support relief efforts, as tens of thousands of people stream into the two countries to escape worsening turmoil in Libya. The UN Refugee Agency says the situation is fast reaching a "crisis point". As many as 140,000 people, mostly foreigners who had been working in Libya, have crossed into Egypt and Tunisia in the past week and many more are on the move. The IRC's Emergency Response Team leader, Alan Manski, is heading the relief mission to Tunisia.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is sending members of its Emergency Response Team to Tunisia to survey the humanitarian needs of thousands of people pouring into the country to escape violence in neighbouring Libya. Veteran team leader Alan Manski and other IRC emergency experts will be traveling to the two main border crossings, Ras Adjir and Ben Guardane, where the Tunisian military has set up transit centres. Manski says the IRC will be looking at ways to help those most in need, whether they are waiting for transportation home or lack the means to return.

The International Rescue Committee has aid teams ready to assist people fleeing violence in Libya should a refugee crisis evolve. "We're watching the situation in Libya and surrounding areas very closely," says Gillian Dunn, the head of IRC emergency response operations.

Increased attention and resources are needed to protect and aid civilians JUBA - Increasing displacement from violence and a steady stream of Southern Sudanese returning home ahead of the 9 January referendum on secession are straining communities already facing dire shortages of food, water, health care and sanitation. “We have an unfolding humanitarian crisis, layered on top of an existing and forsaken one,” says Susan Purdin, the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) country director in Southern Sudan.

The International Rescue Committee joins the United Nations and others in the humanitarian aid community in calling on all parties in the Gaza crisis to adhere to international humanitarian law and ensure that civilians have full access to medical care and other humanitarian assistance. News reports today indicate that more than 570 Palestinians, many of them women and children, have been killed in the violence that began on 27 December following the breakdown of a six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.