Attachments
This report covers the period 1 January to 31 December, 2012.
Overview
The Indian Ocean Islands (IOI) experience different kinds of disasters each year ranging from flooding, cyclones, strong winds and tropical storms. During the year, heavy rains and floods hit Comoros while Madagascar was hit by heavy storms and Intense Tropical Cyclone (ITC) Giovanna, followed by the severe Tropical Storm (TS) Irina and soon after by an active Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) that brought additional heavy rains causing a lot of damage in the two countries. While ITC Giovanna caused significant damage to houses as a result of very strong winds of up to 230 km/h in the eastern and central part of the island, TS Irina and the ITCZ resulted in massive floods and landslides in the south-eastern area. According to the authorities, a total of 112 people died, 299 were wounded and 54,000 people were displaced. In total more than 300,000 people were affected.
Heavy rains were experienced in the Comoros Islands from 20 April 2012, causing the worst flooding in decades. As of 26 April, over 64,987 people were affected and more than 9,000 displaced on the islands of Grande Comore, Mohéli and Anjouan. At the request of the Comoros Red Crescent Society (CRCS) and with support from the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent (IFRC), an emergency appeal was launched to assist up to 20,000 affected beneficiaries (4,000 households) through relief distribution of non-food items, water and sanitation hygiene (WASH) kits, hygiene promotion activities, as well as health and care interventions, including first aid and psychosocial support.
In 2012, the IOI programmes focused on Disaster management, health and strengthening national societies’ capacity to respond to the needs of the vulnerable people in their respective countries as well as to be well functioning national societies. Two emergency appeals were launched for Malagasy Red Cross in response to TC Giovanna and Tropical Storms including an emergency appeal in response to Flash Floods in Comoros on behalf of Comoros Red Crescent.
The IFRC IOI office organized two regional workshops that brought together national societies Secretaries General and presidents in a meeting in April 2012 while the other workshop was a youth meeting in September in Comoros. In a bid to increase staff capacities, relevant trainings in human resource management, finance development, organisation development, disaster management, communication and PMER were conducted targeting national societies and IFRC staff.