Patrick Youssef joined the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2005 and has completed several missions in Sudan, Chad, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay. Between 2010 and 2013, he was the deputy head of operations for the Near and Middle East, covering Yemen, Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council. He was head of the delegation in Iraq for more than 2 years, before being appointed deputy regional director for Africa in 2016. In this role, he managed ICRC operations in the Maghreb, the Sahel, the Lake Chad basin and West Africa.