Red Cross slams 'unacceptable' politicisation of Venezuela aid

A top Red Cross official decried Monday a dire lack of international funding for humanitarian aid in Venezuela, warning that assistance was being politicised and desperate civilians were paying the price.

Francesco Rocca, President of the International Federation of the Red Cross, said the organisation's emergency appeal in September for some 50 million Swiss francs ($50.1 million, 45.5 million euros) for aid to Venezuela was less than 10-percent funded.

"This is not about resources, this is about political will," he said, warning that the severe underfunding meant vital medical treatments, medicines and food could not be provided.

United Nations agencies and other humanitarian actors were facing the same lack of funds for Venezuela operations, and as a result, many people in the country were "starving and dying", Rocca said. He warned that there were some who wanted "to use the civilian population, their desperation, as a tool to destabilise the country".

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro remains in power through the support of his security forces, while more than 50 countries, including the US and Brazil, have recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as the nation's acting leader.

More than 4.5 million people have meanwhile left the country, which is in the midst of its worst economic and social crisis in recent history, suffering from severe shortages of power and resources, as well as crippling US sanctions.