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Niger

Niger: Epidemic (meningitis & measles) Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) n° MDRNE015, Final Report

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A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

Niger is a West African country located in the heart of the African meningitis belt, which stretches from Senegal to Djibouti. The hot and dry climate is favourable to the outbreak of meningitis epidemics generally between November and May. In April 2015, following an escalation in meningitis cases (from December 2015) an epidemic was officially declared by the Ministry of Public Health. At the same time, measles outbreak was also confirmed in the Northern region of the country: Agadez, Maradi and Zinder being the worst affected.

On 2 May 2015, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) released 100,428 Swiss franc from the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Red Cross Society of Niger (NRCS) respond to the needs of the affected population. The DREF operation was intended to support 210,000 people (30,000 households) in Dosso and Niamey (meningitis response) and Agadez and Zinder (measles response) over 6 weeks period.

On 2 June 2015, an Operations Update was issued to extend the timeframe by 2 weeks and an additional allocation of 102,770 Swiss franc to expand the planned activities in response to the meningitis epidemic into 8 additional districts.

In total, 10 districts Niamey I, II III, IV, and V, Doutchi, Gaya, Fillingué, Kollo, Ouallam with awareness raising/ sensitization campaigns, as well as preparedness for response in 10 other districts that had not been affected, but were at high risk. Following the stabilization of the measles epidemic, and indications that the number of cases was reduced, it was agreed that the planned activities in Agadez and Zinder would be cancelled.

On 10 July 2015, an Operations Update was issued to extend the timeframe by 3 weeks (New end date: 31 July 2015) to enable the completion of a lessons learned workshop.

The DREF operation was replenished by the Belgian Red Cross / Government and Canadian Red Cross / Government. The major donors and partners of the DREF include: the Red Cross Societies and governments of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA, as well as DG ECHO, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) the Medtronic and Zurich Foundations and other corporate and private donors. The Niger Red Cross Society would like to extend many thanks to all partners for their generous contributions.