Heavy rainfall caused poorly maintained flood gates and water drainage systems to malfunction. This resulted in the flooding of populated areas in Upper Egypt. Impoverished areas with poor infrastructure have been affected the most. Around 5,650 people have been negatively affected. There has been loss of homes, infrastructure, medical care, and material goods. The heavy rains that flooded Egypt’s Red Sea and Suhag governorates cut power supplies and disrupted road traffic on routes linking to cities in Upper Egypt. Schools have been closed in the area.

Affected people have lost very basic living essentials and sustained damages to their homes. With winter and the cold season approaching, people have as well lost their personal belongings such as clothing, furniture, kitchen supplies, and bedding. These needs are essential as they begin to rebuild their lives and move into the winter season. Despite the governmental aid, there are still many families who are without electricity, housing, and basic living essentials, appropriate medication, and health equipment are needed for the hospital.

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On October 17, a tropical cyclone with international name “Haima” (local name “Lawin”) entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) as a typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 175 kph with gusts of up to 215 kph.  Typhoon Haima generated moderate to heavy rains within a 600 km diameter from its center.  By 1:00 PM on the 19th of October, typhoon Haima intensified into a super typhoon with maximum sustained wind of up to 225 kph with gusts of up to 315 kph. Haima reached land by 11:00 PM on that same day.  Super typhoon Haima crossed over the provinces of Cagayan and Apayao before leaving the PAR at 10:00 PM on the 20th of October.

As of October 24, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported a total of 33,183 households (158,863 persons) that are still displaced. The same report indicated a total of 8 casualties and 1 injured as result of the typhoon.  Super typhoon Haima left 65 barangays flooded with up to 3 feet of water level. 33 road sections and bridges in Regions I, II, III and CAR were reported impassable due to flooding and landslides one week after the typhoon.  Power lines are down in the most remote communities and electricity is only expected to be restored in two months.  The disaster agency also reported that super typhoon Haima caused more than 2.5 billion Philippines pesos (PHP) worth of damages (PHP 1.58B in infrastructure and PHP 0.94B in agriculture).

As part of the revision process of the ACT Alliances Humanitarian Response Mechanism, the ACT Secretariat is piloting new tools with selected Forums to identify how to improve the overall mechanism.  In the near future, the “Preliminary Appeal” will be replaced by the “Concept Note”, a shorter more concise document which summarizes the proposed ACT response and emphasizes collaboration amongst the ACT members.  The Philippines Forum has graciously accepted to pilot the draft version of the Concept Note so that we can draw lessons learned from its utilization and modify the template and process related to it accordingly.

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The powerful Hurricane Matthew, category 4 (in the Saffir-Simpson Scale), hit Dominican Republic on October 4^th, leaving 4 people dead, 22,745 evacuated and more than 2,398 houses damaged. The heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, widespread floods and landslides, destruction of agricultural crops, houses, bridges and basic services facilities like electricity, communication and drinking water.

Up to date, 11,853 people remain evacuated and the alerts have dropped to yellow but in the meantime the official institutions are receiving more damages reports on rural flooding, overflowing of rivers, streams and creeks, as well as landslides.

Relevant national agencies from the government are taking care of raising the awareness of the population, and conducting evacuations in vulnerable areas as well as road rehabilitation. Now, there is a great risk that a large number of people can become affected by diseases due to the large amount of mud and contamination from the poor sanitary conditions left by the hurricane in the overcrowded locations where people remain in shelters.

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The announcement of the Peace Agreements between Colombia’s FARC guerrilla group and the Colombian Government calls for a definite end to all attacks between both parties, as well as to create the conditions to begin implementing the Final Agreement which implies the disarmament of the group and to prepare the country for the FARC’s reintegration into civilian life.
The implementation of the peace agreements between the government and the FARC in Colombia begins with the process of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of FARC members. This process will be implemented in 28 zones (22 rural zones and 6 temporary camps) where the members of the guerrilla group will gather for their reintegration into civilian life.

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In 2015 and 2016, Malawi experienced the El Niño weather phenomenon, manifested by poor distribution of rainfall and prolonged dry conditions, which resulted in delayed planting and poor crop development. The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) report of June 2016 showed that a minimum of 6.5 million people (39% of Malawi’s population) will not be able to meet their annual food requirements during the 2016/17 consumption period, in 24 of the Malawi’s 28 Districts. This protracted drought was combined with floods in some areas of Malawi, which have also increased the risk of water-borne disease outbreaks.

On 12^th of April 2016, His Excellency President of Malawi Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, declared the ongoing severe drought a national disaster requiring external support. The government has since allocated USD 48,630,137 for maize purchases in the 2016/17 budget. In addition, the World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a Joint Emergency Food Assistance Programme (JEFAP) to assist vulnerable households with relief food items. However, the magnitude of the problem will require other agencies to complement government and WFP efforts. The government has also called upon well-wishers to assist the people in Malawi, especially those in the worst affected areas.

The ACT Forum in Malawi is planning to respond to the crisis through ACT members the Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) and the Evangelical Lutheran Development Service (ELDS), in two districts: Chikwawa and Nsanje. At the moment no response by government or any other actor has started in the proposed Districts although according to the MVAC, recommendations for response was supposed to start by July 2016 in selected Districts.

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There is currently a massive influx of refugees from South Sudan into Uganda following the collapse of the Transitional Government of National Unity due the fighting that erupted on 7th July between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), government forces of President Salve Kiir, and Sudan People’s Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO), loyal to the former first vice president Dr. Riek Machar. The July 7th 2016 crisis has continued to manifest the power struggle between Machar and Kiir on ethnic lines and has unsettled the already volatile young nation of South Sudan, as it led to the collapse of the April 2016 agreement (which successfully enabled the return of Riek Machar to Juba and the subsequent formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity). The recent clashes also led to the loss of about 300 lives and displacement of over 36,000 people internally, with about 110,000 people forced to flee to neighbouring countries.

ACT Uganda Forum has been responding through its members Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Finn Church Aid (FCA). Both organisations have been focussing on Adjumani, where all the refugee hosting settlements are full to capacity, so there is an eminent need to identify new sites or consider the expansion of existing ones. LWF has constructed an emergency shelter and distributed blankets among other relief items, but with new arrivals, the emergency response team is over-stretched. FCA is providing inclusive Education in Emergencies for South Sudanese refugees with focus on children with disabilities.

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On 10^th September 2016 at 15:27 local time an earthquake with the magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter scale and at a depth of 40km hit north-west Tanzania. The epicentre was located in close proximity to the border town of Nsunga on the Lake Victoria and nearby Bukoba municipality, a major town and the regional centre for the Kagera region. On 11^th September at 22:15 a stronger aftershock was felt in Bukoba.

The most recent figure shows that 17 persons are reported dead and 170 hospitalized. While assessments are still on-going, preliminary evaluations record that 840 buildings have been destroyed including three schools and dormitories. Over 1,264 houses are reported to be unsafe and hundreds of people are currently displaced. Marine police stations that were to be used as a shelter had been destroyed by the aftershock on 11^th September. The Acting Regional Commissioner of Kagera region estimates the need for temporary shelters for over 3,000 people as well as for medical supplies, non-food items, food assistance and psychosocial support.

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The ETH161 Appeal has been both extended (for 5 additional months) and revised, for the following reasons: late receipt of funds, underfunding of some components and challenges and delays in implementation, including massive coordination effort and heavy bureaucratic process to get permission to respond to particular geographic area, which didn’t stop requesting members to prioritize the limited resource received and take action to respond.

The major humanitarian needs include: to protect the lives of millions of people who are at risk due to lack of food, water and disease outbreaks. To support their livelihoods as they lost significant part of their livestock and the remaining animals are in very poor condition.  Also, as the affected people consumed their seeds, these need to be replenished to ensure adequate planting for the next agriculture season.  Also agricultural inputs are needed to ensure good harvesting for the coming year. Flooding and other drought or conflict-related displacement will lead to more humanitarian needs such as shelter and non-food items.

The ACT Forum in Ethiopia is supporting ongoing response efforts by population affected by drought through food assistance, early recovery and restoration of livelihoods, health and nutrition support, agricultural and livestock production and WASH. Around 25% of the total targeted population said to be in need of physical and psychosocial support (see 2016 HRD) which LWF Ethiopia intend to address through mainstreaming of CBPS aspects.

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Appeals_08_2016_Refugees_Migrants_Humanitarian Response_EUR161Since the beginning of 2015 an increased flow of people seeking asylum in Europe or a better life have been travelling into Europe in increasing numbers. The number of asylum seekers has constantly risen from a few thousand in 2014 to over a million entering Europe in 2015. While the number of people entering Europe via the Balkans has fallen since the second quarter of 2016, there are still significant numbers of people arriving daily in countries along the route. Many people are now staying in the countries of arrival in Europe and not moving further, which has caused both governments and NGOs to respond to new needs or respond to the needs in a different way (at least in the semi-long term), including more integration, education and other services.

Although Government authorities have scaled up their capacities, they are unable to handle all the needs. Serbia, Hungary and Greece now have significant populations of vulnerable people – many who will not be able to continue their journey into Europe.

ACT Alliance members International Orthodox Christian Charities with its implementing partner Apostoli (IOCC/Apostoli), Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Philanthropy (PHIL), Ecumenical Humanitarian Organization (EHO), Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) and Christian Aid (CA) together with ACT Alliance EU (CA/ACT EU) plan to continue their humanitarian support to refugees/migrants in Greece, Serbia, and Hungary to contribute to the alleviation of their suffering, by addressing the most pressing needs in the sectors of Food Security, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Health, Psychosocial support, Shelter, Non-Food Items, Education and Protection, as well as by providing related humanitarian advocacy across Europe.

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As of 30^th July 2016, 14 people have died and over 340,000 households in 16 districts have been severely affected by the continuing heavy rains during the last few days which has caused floods in Northern – Central parts of Bangladesh. The continuing downpour and rising waters have now exacerbated an already bad situation.

As of 1^st August 2016 (reliefweb),  the rivers Dharla, Ghagot, Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Gur, Atrai, Dhaleswari, Lakhya, Kaliganga, Dhaleswari, Padma and Titasare have been all flowing above the danger level by 62 cm on average and in some places as high as 137 cm.

According to Flood Forecasting & Warning Centre and Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWBD), rising water level in several major rivers will keep exacerbating the flood situation in the next 24 – 48 hours particularly in the low lying areas adjacent to Rajbari, Manikganj, Munshiganj and Sariotpur districts as well as Dhaka city.

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