Exceptionally harsh winter conditions from the beginning of January 2017, with temperatures at time going down to -30 degrees Celsius, have already claimed lives across Europe – among them refugees from various countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. The cold wave started already beginning of January peaking end of last week and building up to a small – scale emergency. Meteorologist forecast new freezing waves in Serbia, with lots of snow and freezing rain. It is estimated that this winter will be one of the coldest in the last 50 years. Among cold snap affected people are already highly vulnerable refugees/migrants in Serbia, who are in need of winterization support.

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The arctic conditions from the beginning of January 2017 have already claimed lives across Europe. Conditions remain tough and constitute a small-scale, local emergency in south-eastern Romania. The severe winter weather hit Romania a week ago, when it started snowing heavily and temperatures dropped consecutively to -25 degrees Celsius. However, the crisis has reached a critical level only in the past 24 hours, hence the release of the alert at this time. Snowfall, combined with powerful winds caused the situation to deteriorate resulting in real danger for many rural communities.

The cold snap claimed lives of many elderly people dying of hypothermia. 40,000 are affected by the weather and cut off by the blizzards in the South and East of Romania and in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. People have been trapped for more than a week inside their houses leaving many with no access to food, water and medicine.  Authorities are also warning of flooding, when the snow thaws and breaches dams and meteorologists predict that it will continue to snow in the South and East of Romania during the next week.

ACT Alliance member AIDRom, is on standby to reach affected areas to carry out a rapid needs assessment and plans to distribute  food parcels, water and NFIs through the ACT Alliance Rapid Response Fund.

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Super Typhoon Nock-ten or known locally as Nina reached maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 255 kilometres as it made landfall, weather officials and radio reports stated. The typhoon has weakened but is still equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane , sustaining winds of up to 140 kilometres per hour as it moved towards the heavily populated provinces of Batangas and Cavite, south of Manila. Nock-ten had made its first landfall in Bato, Catanduanes at 6:30 PM local time on Sunday, December 25.  At least 218,000 flee to evacuation shelters as it made its first landfall over Catanduanes province, on the Bicol peninsula, which was on the highest storm alert for its arrival.  Its second landfall in Sagñay, Camarines Sur was at around 9:30 pm, December 25. It brought heavy rain and fierce winds to Bicol. The typhoon is forecasted to have 5 landfalls before it goes out of the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) by 28 December. Based on the profile created by UNOCHA, the 50 km radius of the typhoon track covers 14 provinces. An estimated 38 Million people (19.5 M women/ 19.4 M men) or 7.5 M households may be affected. It is not clear how long it will take for initial damage assessments, with electricity and phone coverage likely to be knocked out for some time.

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The Severe cyclonic storm ‘Vardah’ made landfall near Chennai, the capital city of South Indian State of Tamil Nadu with winds around 140kmph for about 90 minutes during the afternoon of 12th December 2016, until it crossed the city and travelled inland, bringing at least 10 cm rainfall and claiming 10 lives. According to the recent weather forecast, light to moderate rainfall will occur in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Villupuram districts of Tamil Nadu in the next 12 hours.

At least 10 people, including a 3-year-old child and four women died in separate rain-related incidents in Chennai city. Skymet Weather chief meteorologist said, “Vardah did not weaken significantly as expected. The very severe cyclonic storm was still a severe cyclonic storm when it made landfall at north of Chennai.” Many arterial roads were blocked with fallen trees causing traffic havoc. Several houses were destroyed, especially in coastal parts like Kottivakkam, Palavakkam, Foreshore Estate and Royapuram. Several incidents of wall collapse were reported across the city¹.  The cyclone has caused severe destruction by uprooting trees, damaging houses, disrupting power services, land and air transport and throwing normal life out of gear.

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A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province at 05.03am local time on 7 December 2016. Indonesia’s national disaster management agency (BNPB) has reported that 97 people have died and more than 600 have been injured. Around 200 buildings have either collapsed or are heavily damaged.  The most heavily affected district is Pidie Jaya, particularly the 4 sub-districts – total population 104,430 (2015) – of Bandar Baru, Trienggadeng, Bandar Dua and Meureudu (district capital).

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Hurricane Otto, category 2, hit the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican territory on Thursday, November 24, as the latest hurricane of the season with winds of 175 Kms Per hour from the Caribbean Sea. It is the first hurricane in 50 years to hit Costa Rica, where 9 deaths were reported but none in Nicaragua.   In Nicaragua, 2,000 persons were evacuated in the Caribbean coast, and in San Carlos, Rio San Juan, near to the Costa Rican border. No significant damages had been reported in Nicaragua. In Costa Rica, more than 50,000 people have lost houses, livelihoods, and the crops. So far, 5,502 persons remain in 50 shelters. The most affected region are the central and northern regions. The country remains with red alert due the heavy rains in the western coasts leaving several communities isolated.

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The Syrian crisis is an ongoing multifaceted armed conflict, since unrest began in March 2011. The severity of the humanitarian disaster has been outlined by the United Nations (UN) and many international organizations. The Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR)  has found that altogether 45% of the prewar population has been forced to move — including 6.36 million displaced within Syria and more than 4 million who have fled the country to Lebanon, Jordan,Iraq,Turkey, Egypt, and Kuwait.   With new offenses planned on the city of Raqqa in 2017, these numbers could be set to increase.

ACT Alliance members have been responding directly to the Syria crisis through the Appeal mechanism since 2012 through SYR121, SYR131, SYR151 and SYR161. JSL Forum members are planning to submit a new response to the Syria crisis through SYR171 new appeal.

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Kenya is currently experiencing drought due to the adverse effects of the weather phenomenon La Nina. This is evidenced by the country experiencing generally sunny and dry weather conditions in the months of June, July, August and September. Moreover, the forecast by the Kenya Meteorological Services for the October-November-December 2016 ‘Short Rains Season’ projects that most parts of the country will experience generally depressed rainfall with sunny and dry weather conditions prevailing. The onset is also expected to be late in most parts of the country.

Reports from the national government and stakeholders indicate 1.25 million people in Arid and Semi-Arid counties are facing starvation. In October 2016, The National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) declared Kilifi County to be at alarm drought phase while the following counties are in the alert phase: Tana River, Garissa, Taita Taveta, Narok, Meru (North), Mandera. Makueni, Lamu, Wajir, Marsabit, Kwale, and Kajiado. Turkana, Isiolo, Tharaka Nithi, Nyeri and Samburu counties have their drought status classified as normal though it is predicted that this situation will worsen in the coming months.

The ACT Kenya Forum through the following members; Anglican Church of Kenya, World Renew, Christian Aid, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, National Council of Churches of Kenya and Church World Service are planning to participate in the response  and complement existing efforts through a joint ACT appeal.

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On 25, 26 and 27 October 2016, heavy rainfall resulted in flooding of populated areas in Upper Egypt, primarily in Suhag with 2’600 people affected and the Red Sea Governorates with 3’000 people affected. 26 people have reportedly been killed and 72 injured due to torrential rain and flooding. The Ministry of Health said the death toll could rise as some families did not report deaths before burial. A warning was released about heavy rains across the country’s different regions to continue until about the sixth of November. The Red Sea and Suhag governorates experienced power cuts and disrupted road traffic on routes linking to cities in Upper Egypt. Schools have been closed in the area.

ACT member BLESS is looking to provide 5’250 affected people with essential kitchen supplies and bedding sets.

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The impacts of the ongoing insurgency attacks by Boko Haram on both lives and properties in the North East states of Nigeria have left many in fear, displaced millions of people, while hundreds of thousands have lost their livelihoods and are facing serious starvation. Total number of food insecure people in Nigeria is 14.6 million; 7.3M of these are in Adamawa, Borno & Yobe where CA has operations – out of which 3 M are in urgent need of food assistance.

Over 2.5 M children are malnourished, 2.5 M internally displaced and only 30% of the total needs are currently met. The situation is escalating with the renewed government offensive against Boko Haram in the North East. This will lead to further displacements compounding an already dire humanitarian situation.

ACT Alliance through Christian Aid plans to scale up efforts in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Gombe around Livelihood support through provision of agricultural inputs to support IDP returnees in host communities whilst still providing emergency relief in host communities in Borno where there is high need for food and livelihood, water, shelter and protection issues, aiming to reach about 50,000 households. In addition, Christian Aid plans to continue food and NFI distribution using cash based programming, while providing water and other WASH facilities to communities/IDPs in need.

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