Farnesina, the ANSA photos for the 30 years of the Crisis Unit

From the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001 to the plane crash in Ethiopia this year when eight Italians lost their lives. A photo exhibition of the ANSA tells in images the last years of the intervention of the Ministry of Crisis Unit - "a structure of excellence", in the words of Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio - who turns 30 years old. Hosted in the premises of the Crisis Unit, the photos often bear witness to dramatic events, natural disasters, terrorist massacres, but also situations positively resolved such as the return home of kidnapped compatriots. "We celebrate thirty years since the establishment of this structure at the Foreign Ministry - said the general secretary Elisabetta Belloni, inaugurating the permanent exhibition -, an intuition that is certainly happy" and that "presents a balance of which we are proud". Belloni recalled that the structure was taken as an example by many other countries, including the European Union, and that over time "it has equipped itself with a technological instrumentation that continues to update and elaborate", indispensable for offering assistance and help to Italians abroad. The Secretary General then thanked ANSA that "not only accompanies us daily in communicating what the Foreign Ministry is doing, and in this case the Crisis Unit", but also because through "this beautiful exhibition allows us to recall a path "and summarizes emergency situations with" significant images, many of which are positively resolved "
"When there are difficult moments - said the director of ANSA Luigi Contu - our crisis unit of ANSA puts itself in contact with the real Crisis Unit of the Farnesina to try to get the first information and understand how to move, but above all for having certified information, because in the moments in which the lives of the people are at stake, the feelings and the fears must hold the nerves and to trust to sure sources. You cannot joke ". "The photographs have enormous power and maximum adherence to reality, and it is something that remains. When a photograph makes you think about what happened it means that it is a photograph that marked that moment, that time, and then a little from the news and enters consciousness and history ", the director Contu observed. From 2012 to 2018 the Crisis Unit - currently led by Stefano Verrecchia - has completed 313 major interventions and 2865 'minor' interventions. Overall, therefore, more than one intervention per day on average. Most of the actions concern Italians in difficulty due to socio-political tensions, disasters and natural disasters, kidnappings and liberations (47), health emergencies. Over 66 were the missions of the Crisis Unit. The Secretary General Belloni also recalled the app that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has developed to provide consultation and registration tools for those who go abroad and bring together in a single application the services of 'Viaggiare Sure' e 'Dove we are in the world '.
(HANDLE).