The International Committee of the Red Cross has reported on a high-level dialogue held in Addis Ababa on 3 June about cyber operations, artificial intelligence and the protection of civilians during armed conflict.

A broad group joined the discussion

The ICRC says 95 participants included African Union member states, diplomats, UN representatives and civil-society organisations. The discussion addressed risks to people and civilian infrastructure as warfare becomes more digital.

Technology enters humanitarian-law work

Participants considered how information and communications technologies should be reflected in international humanitarian-law workstreams and national policy. The article reports discussion rather than a treaty or binding outcome.

Operational consequence for NGOs

Humanitarian organisations should identify critical digital dependencies, segregate sensitive data, plan manual fallbacks, protect communications and understand how cyber incidents could interrupt health, water or assistance services.