The Global Overview collates information from a range of sources and displays it in a manner that allows for quick comparison of different humanitarian crises.

The Global Overview collates information from a range of sources and displays it in a manner that allows for quick comparison of different humanitarian crises.

Increased rainfall during the last week helped to improve mid-season dryness across Kenya and Somalia, however moderate seasonal deficits remain for many local areas.

1) Even with a reduction of precipitation last week, several weeks of above-average rainfall has led to significant moisture surpluses. An elevated potential for moderate to heavy rainfall may trigger additional flooding, damage local infrastructure, and negatively impact cropping activities throughout Uganda, Kenya, northern Tanzania,
Rwanda and Burundi.

Heavy rains continue across eastern Kenya and Tanzania, while a mid-season cessation of rains bring developing moisture deficits to portions of Somalia and neighboring regions of Ethiopia and Kenya.

Heavy, but not well-distributed rains received in parts of Kenya, Somalia.

One Little Life at a Time: Emergency Response in the Horn of Africa

In 2011, people in the Horn of Africa asked only one question: When will the rains return?

After two years of drought, 13 million people (half of them children) are still hungry and at risk of malnutrition—or worse. Families now depend on humanitarian aid to survive, many sheltered in the camps on the borders of Ethiopia and Kenya.

This Review analyzes some of the major events and trends related to natural disasters and humanitarian disaster response in 2011.

2011 was the most expensive year in terms of disaster losses in history, mostly because of a spate of disasters affecting developed countries. Globally, the ecnonomic cost of disasters in 2011 was $380 billion, of which $210 billion were the result of the earthquake and tsunmai in Japan. This was 72 percent higher than the losses in 2005, the second costliest year in history of disaster-related losses.

302 human impact disasters claimed 29,782 lives; affected 206 million and inflicted record economic damages of $366 billion in 2011

Geneva, 18 January 2012 – For two consecutive years the long-term disasters trend has been bucked by major earthquakes which claimed thousands of lives and affected millions in both 2010 and 2011, according to new statistics published today by CRED and the UN office for disaster risk reduction, UNISDR.

On December 26, 2004, millions of people from Southeast Asia to East Africa experienced one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. In a matter of minutes, the tsunami killed more than 230,000 people, and millions more watched as their homes, shops, boats, places of worship and schools disappeared into an inconceivably powerful wave.

The magnitude of destruction caused by the Indian Ocean Tsunami resulted in an unprecedented outpouring of generosity from donors worldwide. The American Red Cross alone received $581 million.