Operational summary
26-28 May 2017: Low pressure area formed in the Bay of Bengal and intensifies into Tropical cyclone Mora (TC Mora).
29 May 2017: Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) issues danger signal no. 10 in six coastal districts (Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Noakhali, Lakshmipur, Feni and Chandpur) as TC Mora approaches the coast of Bangladesh. BDRCS deployed its volunteers to support the evacuation of population to safe shelters. A disaster management information system (DMIS) update is issued.
30 May 2017: TC Mora makes landfall in Cox’s Bazar with a maximum speed of 130 km/h. TC Mora traverses northeast across Bangladesh through Chittagong and Rangamati districts
31 May 2017: 110,111 Swiss francs is allocated from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the BDRCS in addressing the immediate needs of the affected people
12 June 2017: The IFRC launches an Emergency Appeal for 1,296,519 Swiss francs at the request of the BDRCS to assist 50,000 people.
13 June 2017: Bandarban, Chittagong, Rangamati, Kagrachari and Cox’s Bazar districts experience the worst landslides in history, at least 160 people have lost their lives.
19-21 June 2017: A joint assessment is conducted by the BDRCS and in-country Movement partners.
13 July 2017: As of 13 July 2017, the BDRCS has reached more than 7,000 families with dry food /cooked food assistance with the support of the IFRC. In addition to that BDRCS have also reached 700 most affected families with multipurpose cash grant and shelter toolkits.
7 August 2017: The IFRC issues a revised Emergency Appeal for 1,674,188 Swiss francs (increased from 1,296,519 Swiss francs) to support 80,000 people (increased from 50,000). 22 to 29 November 2017: The BDRCS organizes Participatory Approach for Safe Shelter Awareness (PASSA)
Training of Trainers (ToT) and Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) ToT for the volunteers and staffs.
9 December 2017: The BDRCS starts the distribution of conditional cash grants for shelter and livelihood under the recovery phase of cyclone Mora.
22 December 2018: The IFRC issues a revised Emergency Appeal n° 2 for 1,149,014 Swiss francs (decrease from 1,647,188 Swiss francs) to support 50,000 people (reduced from 80,000).
Coordination and partnerships
Overview of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in country
The IFRC has a country office in Bangladesh. The country office is well-resourced and an experienced team supporting the BDRCS in ongoing emergency operations, longer term programming, capacity building and organizational development. The IFRC is supporting the BDRCS to coordinate with other humanitarian and UN agencies.
The IFRC has been supporting the BDRCS with mobilization of fund and personnel, as well as in preparing situation reports and proving technical inputs for a coordinated relief operation. The IFRC is part of the coordinated rapid assessment core team and participating in different coordination meetings, including Humanitarian Coordination Task Team (HCTT). The IFRC is coordinating with UNDP as shelter cluster co-lead, in compiling shelter and nonfood item (NFI) contingency stock data to facilitate the ongoing response. The IFRC has been closely working with the BDRCS and actively coordinating with all in-country Partner National Societies (PNSs).
In addition to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and IFRC, other Movement partners with a long-term presence in Bangladesh are the American Red Cross, British Red Cross, Danish Red Cross, German Red Cross, Swedish Red Cross, Swiss Red Cross and Turkish Red Crescent Society. They focus on supporting the BDRCS in long-term programmes including disaster risk reduction (DRR) and are active supporters of the BDRCS disaster response. There is a strong Movement coordination mechanism which includes bi-monthly Movement Coordination Forum led by the BDRCS. Movement partners will prioritize further capacity enabling and leadership of the BDRCS to deliver relief and recovery programmes.