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Cabo Verde

Cape Verde: Volcano (Fogo) - Emergency Plan of Action DREF n° MDRCV002 Operation update n° 3

Attachments

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster On 23 November 2014, there was a volcanic eruption on the island of Fogo in Cape Verde. The National Civil Protection Service has reported that the lava flows destroyed 230 buildings, including homes and public infrastructures. It has also been reported that 444.7 hectares of land were affected, including 120 hectares of agricultural fields, and livestock killed. In the Bangaeira and Portela communities, 100 per cent of buildings have been destroyed. Though the volcano has not resulted in any loss of lives, 1,076 people have been displaced; and a further 1,500 identified as needing be evacuated if lava flows reach the Cutelo Alto and Fonsaco areas.

On 5 December 2014, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) allocated 45,392 CHF from the Disaster Relief and Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Cape Verde Red Cross (CVRC) respond to the needs of the affected population, with emergency relief and shelter assistance; over a period of 3 months.

On 11 December 2014, an operations update n° 1 was issued and an additional allocation of CHF 63,347 was made to meet the emerging needs in the Cutelo Alto and Fonsaco. On 13 February 2015, an operations update n° 2 was issued and an additional allocation of CHF 10,330 was made to cover costs that were underestimated at the onset of the DREF operation; and the timeframe extended by 1 month to enable the completion of emergency relief and shelter distributions, which were delayed due to the late arrival of the items in country.

This Operations Update is requesting an extension of timeframe by an additional 1 month; in order to carry out a DREF operational review/lessons learned exercise. The operational review/lessons learned was intended to be carried out the week commencing 29 March 2015; however this has had to be postponed until the 5 April 2015 due to unavailability of the CVRC; and personnel with the profile required for this exercise. The IFRC zone office and Sahel regional representation have developed a Terms of Reference; and team members have been identified from the Swiss Red Cross (Disaster Management / Logistics) and Disaster & Crisis Management unit (DREF). Specific focus of the operational review/lessons will be the issues that contributed to the delayed arrival of the items (non-food items and shelter items) in country, in order to assess mechanisms that can be used to improve the timeliness of responses in remote island locations in future operations, for instance, pre-positioning or cash based responses.

The DREF operation will therefore end on 5 May 2015, and a final report will be made available on 5 August 2015 (3 months after the end of the operation).

For progress on the activities carried out within this DREF operation to date, please refer to operations update n° 2 The Spanish Red Cross/Government AECID and DG ECHO have contributed to a partial replenishment of the DREF allocation made for this operation. The major donors and partners of DREF include the Australian, American and Belgian governments, the Austrian Red Cross, the Canadian Red Cross and government, Danish Red Cross and government, DG ECHO, the Irish and the Italian governments, the Japanese Red Cross Society, the Luxembourg government, the Monaco Red Cross and government, the Netherlands Red Cross and government, the Norwegian Red Cross and government, the Spanish Government, the Swedish Red Cross and government, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Medtronic and Z Zurich Foundations, and other corporate and private donors.

IFRC, on behalf of Cape Verde Red Cross Society, would like to extend thanks to all partners for their continued support.