Tropical Cyclone Freddy which is the longest-ever recorded cyclone, characterized by torrential rains, floods, and mudslides in Mozambique and southern Malawi has brought devastating effects. The Cyclone has caused severe flooding affecting homes, hampering access, and increasing the danger of flooding and death. Critical roads, electricity, and communication are destroyed in the most affected areas in Malawi and Mozambique. The floods and increasing water levels due to the rains are causing the displacement of people.  

Cyclone Freddy is a large-scale emergency that hit Malawi and Mozambique. Both countries’ governments are calling for international support. The persons affected are mainly poor rural farmers in both countries. 

he Cyclone has been razing buildings, damaging farmland, critical infrastructure (especially roads), and telecommunications, and causing severe flooding and landslides people have been forced from their homes and are displaced in schools and churches. Others are hosted by families. Livelihoods have been lost because the Cyclone has swept away/destroyed most farm crops and farmers were about to harvest their crops. Most farmers have also lost their livestock due to drowning.  

ACT Forum members in Malawi (CARD, ELDS) and ACT Forum member in Mozambique (DKH) are launching a regional appeal to respond to the effects of the Cyclone.

ACT Alert Malawi-Cyclone Freddy

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8, with at least 78 aftershocks have been reported followed by a second earthquake of 7.5 magnitude, at a depth of 17.925 km (11.14 miles) has occurred at Central Turkey near the city of Gaziantep, as reported by the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) of the USGS on February 06, 2023, 01:41:15 UTC. Preliminary analysis indicates that this is a very strong earthquake, and it is very shallow (shallower quakes generally tend to be more damaging than deeper quakes).

Widespread building collapse has been reported in southeast Turkey and northern Syria. The earthquake was also felt across Lebanon, Cyprus and the region while it is expected that aftershocks which may be at the same intensity as the initial earthquake will be felt for weeks. In Syria, there have been 783 deaths based on early reports (403 in the government-controlled areas and 380 in the uncontrolled areas), 1,315 injuries, and 4,000 damaged buildings and still hundreds of trapped civilians under the rubble.

Death toll has reached more than 1,500 based on the latest reports in Turkey, less than 24 hours after the disaster, and 2,300 have been injured and search and rescue operations are ongoing in several major cities, and a total of 1,718 collapsed buildings destroyed in Turkey’s Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras provinces, said Vice President Fuat Otkay.

The Syrian population was already deeply affected by the ongoing war and the economic collapse of the country and now, many people must deal with being displaced, losing their livelihood, and fighting the harsh winter conditions.

Due to the nature of this emergency, the forum is planning to respond , by requesting RRF as an emergency support and then may be followed by an appeal, based on the results of the assessment. Budgets have not been estimated as members are still conducting their assessments, which will be presented during the Emergency Steering Committee meeting.

ACT Alert- Syria_Turkey Earthquake

Reaching its thirteenth year of war, Syria remains a complex humanitarian and protection emergency both inside Syria and the neighboring countries. Jordan hosted more than 672,000 registered Syrian refugees, however the actual total is estimated at around 1.3 million when those not registered are considered. Around 90% of the Syrian refugees live outside the camps in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas, with almost 80% of the Syrian refugees live below the poverty line in Jordan. Most Syrian families are relying on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs.

The impact of Syrian’s refugee crisis on the Jordan’s economy is high. There are significant structural issues facing the Jordanian economy: insufficient revenue, costly subsidies and a large public sector, water scarcity, and dependence on energy imports. These continue to impact growth, and the situation of Jordanians, particularly in the hosting communities, is becoming more difficult. The crisis also has its huge impact on the socio-economic situation of Jordanians and other population segments such as Palestinian refugees and other refugee population. The crisis has incredible cost for Jordanian families, specifically the younger Jordanian workforce.

The crisis added increasing competition on natural resources and added more pressure on protected areas especially in the northern and eastern parts of the country. It has created more pressure on ecosystem goods and services and had very negative impact on waste management that increased by 30% which was generated because of receiving more than a million of Syrian refugees.

ACT Jordan forum is preparing an appeal to respond to the needs of the affected communities. ACT members: DSPR, ELCJHL, and MECC are getting ready to respond to the protracted humanitarian crisis with focus on sectors of Livelihoods, Food security, Health, Education, and Protection.

Alert-Humanitarian Protracted Crisis- Jordan

ACT-Alert-Tanzania Forum 5 Dec 2022 – Final

Tanzania for the past two years 2021-2022 have been characterized by a below average rainfall during the rainy seasons (March- May and October-December) the lowest ever experienced since 1970 causing a severe drought. The most affected regions are the northern-eastern coastlands/highlands. Drought condition is observed more frequently in parts of the northern and central regions.
The Ministry of livestock has reported at least 157,695 cattle, 48,290 goats,94,230 sheep’s, 6,135 donkeys and 8 camels have died in Coast, Tanga, Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions between September 2021 to January 2022 and recently at least 320 cattle and 250 goats have died due to drought in Tanzania’s northern region of Kilimanjaro between July and September 2022 .

The drought has affected harvest of major crops, increased crop pests, reduced availability of water and reduced pasture for livestock. Food prices have increased significantly, thus affecting the purchasing power of vulnerable members of the affected communities.
The Government of Tanzania identified gaps in response to the drought and developed the 2022-2023 Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). These gaps based on three hazards: Drought; Disease outbreak and pest outbreak.
The 2022-2023 planning envisions Drought in the following:
• Above 120,000 households require food assistance.
• Immediate agricultural response will be required to assist affected households with drought tolerant crops
• Government Strategic Grain Reserves (SGR) will not be sufficient to cater for the population due to the huge numbers of affected population.
• Response may be in form of food aid and cash transfers
• Protection services will be required to prevent and respond to violence in the home and abuse related to accessing food assistance and social support services; ensure equitable access to humanitarian services by vulnerable household

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 at a depth of 10.0 KM(6.21 miles) has occurred at Southwest
Cianjur District – West Java, Indonesia, as reported by Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and
Geophysical Agency (BMKG) on November 21, 2022, 13:21:10 (GMT+7). The earthquake are not tsunami
potential, with epicentrum latitude 6,84 and longitude 107,05 and impacted several location in: 10 km
Southwest Cianjur District; 15 km Northeast Sukabumi city; 39 km Southeast Bogor City; 63 km
Northwest Bandung; and 78 km Southeast Jakarta. Until Tuesday, November 22, 2022, 06:30:00
(GMT+7), around 118 aftershocks were recorded with magnitudes ranging from 1,5 to 4,2. According to
BMKG, the earthquake is the shallow-type quake caused by Cimandiri Fault activity.
The Government of Indonesia has declared this disaster as an Emergency Response Status and is
requesting the involvement of many parties for managing the disaster.

The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Cianjur District on Tuesday (22/11) at 16:00:00
(GMT+7) reported that there were 268 casualties, mostly because they were hit by collapsed building
materials when the quake happened. The Indonesian Red Cross declared that some casualties were
children. As many as 151 persons are declared missing and the search is still ongoing, while as many as
1.083 persons are injured. The total affected community in Cianjur District are 169.124 persons while
around 58.362 people took refuge in other areas as IDPs. As for now, the total affected population which
are reported to evacuate are increasing to 7.060 persons, divided in some evacuation points.
The earthquake has caused infrastructure damages in Cianjur District, whether houses or public facilities.
It is recorded that 12.641 houses are minorly damaged, 2.071 houses are mildly damaged, 6.570 houses
are heavily damaged, 1 unit of Islamic boarding school is heavily damaged, 4 unit of government
buildings are damaged, 3 unit of educational structures are damaged, 1 unit of worship place are
damaged, and 1 regional public hospital (Cianjur Regional Public Hospital) are mildly damaged.
Other than Cianjur District, infrastructure damages are also reported in Bogor Districts (46 houses with
mild damage), Sukabumi District (443 houses with heavy damage), and in Sukabumi city (14 houses with
minor damage). The earthquake also caused landslides that blocked provincial roads in Cianjur District.

ACT Alliance is considering to support the earthquake emergency support by mobilizing funds from the RRF

Indonesia_Alert_Cianjur Earthquake.  

Clashes across the Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border, in the Bulak-Bashi area of the Batken region (Kyrgyzstan) erupted on 14 September 2022 between the troops of Kyrgyzstan and of Tajikistan, which escalated into an International Armed Conflict, each accusing one another of using tanks, mortars, rocket artillery and assault drones to attack the outpost.

A ceasefire was instigated, yet intermittent heavy artillery and gunfire continued in several border villages during 16-20 September. A renewed ceasefire prevails, yet the situation remains tense. A state of emergency was declared on 16 September 2022 in the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan share 984 km of border, 30% of which is still disputed and leads to tensions due to lack of access to water, roads and pastures and nearby settlements.

The surroundings of Batken airport and objects on the outskirts of the city were also shelled. As per official data, the total death toll was 39 and 135 people were injured on the Tajik side, 59 people were killed, among them women and children and more than 100 were injured on the Kyrgyz side. Over 140 thousand civilians evacuated the conflict zone to the safer region (Kadamjai and Razzakov cities) of Batken and have become IDPs.

ACT Europe Forum through Hungarian Interchurch Aid working with local partners will access ACT’s Rapid Response Fund to provide assistance to affected population.

Alert_Batken_Border_Clashes

Iraq is facing a protracted humanitarian crises caused by the ISIS conflict that occurred from 2014-2018 and the subsequent forced displacement of over 6 million people. While it has now been four years since the liberation from ISIS, the impacts of the conflict remain significant across the country, with continued displacement, destruction in basic infrastructure, continued violent conflict and insecurity, protection violations, and lack of livelihoods opportunities which has been further exacerbated by the political and economic crisis in Iraq. Moreover, according to the UNEP (2022), Iraq has been ranked at the 5^th most affected country by climate change in the world. Temperatures are soaring to new extremes as degrees above 50°C are becoming common, compounding the situation further into a complex humanitarian crisis.

ACT Iraq forum is preparing an appeal to respond to the needs of the affected communities. ACT members: HIA and LWF are getting ready for a response to provide durable solutions to the protracted humanitarian crisis in this complex environment with focus on sectors of WASH, Livelihoods (food security and agriculture), Protection and Social Cohesion.

Alert- Iraq Protracted Crisis

In the early hours of September 13, 2022, the Azerbaijani military forces launched a large-scale coordinated attack against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia targeting the peaceful borderline communities in the regions of Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor and Syunik of Armenia. The Azerbaijani armed forces used different weapons, including heavy artillery, mortars of various calibres, UAVs, and large-calibre guns.

The emergency is small scale, however, there is a concern for a large-scale offensive.

The primary geographical focus of the attack is 3 regions of Armenia (Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor and Syunik) including the cities and villages of Kapan, Goris, Jermuk, Vardenis, Sotk, Norabak, Kut, Geghamasar and other borderline communities. According to the Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia, by the beginning of the 2020 year population in these 3 regions are as follows։ Gegharkunik region – a total of 222.7 thousand persons (66.6 urban and 161.1 rural), Vayots Dzor region – a total of 48.5 thousand persons (48.5 urban and 31.4 rural), Syunik region – total 137.3 thousand persons (93.2 urban and 44.1 rural).

ACT Armenia Forum through the Armenian Round Table will access ACT’s Rapid Response Fund to provide assistance in affected regions.

Alert_Armenia_Armed Conflict