Cornelio Sommaruga, president of the ICRC from 1987 to 1999, died at the age of 91. He died during the night from Saturday to Sunday, said his son, Swiss politician Carlo.
Born in Rome in 1932, into a family from the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, he held a doctorate in law from the University of Zurich. Under his leadership, the International Committee of the Red Cross faced the war in former Yugoslavia, the First Chechen War and the genocide in Rwanda.