In 2012 so far, floods were the most frequent disaster occurring in Asia (44%), accounted for 54% of the death toll, 78% of people affected and 56% of all economic damages in the region.

While security conditions have improved in most of DRC, the eastern region of North Kivu continues to experience violence and displacement. Besides affecting the population, the crisis also reduces humanitarian access and data availability. Values in the above table must be interpreted with caution, bearing in mind that while CE-DAT coverage and data timeliness from Bandundu are satisfactory (see map), data from North Kivu are scarce and mainly dating back to 2010.

Climate-related disasters in Africa

In 2011, 64 climate-related disasters in the African continent were recorded in the EM-DAT database, of which 69% were floods, 17% droughts and 14% storms. A total of 792 deaths and 22.6 million affected people were reported as a result of these disasters. Economic damages were estimated at US$ 1.0 billion. The total number of people affected by climate-related disasters in Africa in 2011 was above the 2001-2010 annual average (14.8 million), due to the impact of droughts.

Mondastri K. Sudaryo, Besral1, Ajeng Tias Endarti, Ronnie Rivany, Revati Phalkey, Michael Marx and Debarati Guha-Sapir

Background: On 30 September 2009, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake severely hit the coast of Padang city in West Sumatra, Indonesia leaving about 1,117 people dead and injuring another 3,515. Health consequences such as physical injury, co-morbidity, disability and quality of life over time are seldom reported among survivors after earthquakes.

Natural disasters in 2011

In 2011, 302 natural disasters were recorded in the EM-DAT database. They claimed over 29,780 lives, affected nearly 206 million others and caused record economic damages of US$366 billion.

In the first semester of 2011, natural disasters had a devastating impact on human society. Preliminary EM-DAT figures showed the occurrence of 108 natural disasters, which killed over 23 thousand people, affected nearly 44 million others and caused more than US$ 253 billion of economic damages.

Sixty-one countries experienced a natural disaster, with 11 disasters (10%) happening in the Philippines alone. This country was mainly hit by severe floods and storms. However China, suffering from 8 disasters, counted the most people affected by natural disasters (25.9 million or 59%).

Natural Disasters in Countries with Very High Human Development

Merely halfway through the year 2011, disaster figures continue to show the tremendous impacts that natural disasters have on human societies. The end of 2010 and the first months of 2011 were particularly marked by extreme events in several developed countries.

In 2010, 373 natural disasters were recorded in the EM-DAT database. They killed over 296,800 people, affected over 207 million others and caused more than US$109 billion of econom-ic damages. The two most lethal disasters - the January 12 earth-quake in Haiti, which killed over 222,500 people, as well as the Russian summer heat wave, which caused about 56,000 fatalities - made 2010 the deadliest year in at least two decades. For the first time, the Americas headed the list of the world's most af-fected continents, with 75 per cent of total deaths were caused

There are four refugee camps in Kenya, with three located near the city of Dadaab in Garissa District (North Eastern province) and hosting mostly Somali refugees. The remain-ing camp is located in Kakuma, Turkana district (Rift Val-ley), and hosts mainly Somali and Sudanese refugees. As the number of Somali refugees steadily increased over the last 3 years, transfers from Dadaab to Kakuma camp have been implemented in order to alleviate chronic overcrowding. Indeed, Dadaab was originally established to accommodate a maximum of 90,000 refugees, and today hosts