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Peru + 13 more

Latin America & The Caribbean Weekly Situation Update (As of 19 June 2023)

Attachments

REGIONAL: STORMS & FLOODING

KEY FIGURES

765.7K PEOPLE AFFECTED BY FLOODING ACROSS PERU

141.9K DENGUE CASES REPORTED IN PERU FOLLOWING FLOODS

3.7K HOMES DAMAGED BY FLOODS IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL

2023 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON

According to their 19 June 2023 advisory, the United States’ National Hurricane Center (NHC) is reporting that Tropical Depression Three, currently 1,400 miles east of the southern Windward Islands, is on track to strengthen and move across the Lesser Antilles as a hurricane on 22 and 23 June, likely bringing flooding risk, high winds and storm surge. NHC indicates that while it is still too soon to specify the magnitude and locaiton of where the eventual hurricane may make landfall, interests in the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands should continue to monitor the system and be prepared.

The storm, which will become Tropical Storm Bret in coming days, is developing weeks ahead of when systems typically form over this specific location in the Atlantic Ocean.
However, analysts indicate that current ocean water temperatures are at their warmest levels on record, which is likely contributing to the storm’s early development and could potentially trigger exceptionally early storms. Earlier season forecasts had called for a slightly below-average hurricane season for 2023 due to the presence of the El Niño phenomenon and its limiting effects on storm formation.

PERU

Following massive early year flooding across northern Peru, a subsequent dengue epidemic has led to a record 141,973 cases and 232 deaths - the highest dengue fever death rate per capita in the Americas. As a result, the national health system has declared a health emergency.
The Ministry of Health (MINSA) is rolling out measures to scale up national response capacities. After several weeks of continuous growth, the National Institute of Health (INS) reports that the infection rate has dropped by 30 percent in the last week.

With 72 per cent of the damage records accounted for, the Government reports that there are 765,781 people in need, an increase of 83,314 people since Situation Report No. 6 (24 May). Some 109,027 people are reported to have been rendered homeless and 656,754 affected. In addition, reports indicate that 41,670 homes have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.

Food, safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, health, protection and the situation of 1,580 people in 32 shelters, official and makeshift alike, remain key humanitarian needs, according to the National Humanitarian Network’s Shelter Sectoral Working Group.

Humanitarian partners in affected areas continue providing assistance to affected people, while also supporting dengue response as needed. The National Humanitarian Network has set up sub-national networks in Tumbes, Piura and Lambayeque to coordinate UN, NGO and civil society organizations with local governments and continue implementing activities backed by the US$6.9 million UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocation.

BRAZIL

The Rio Grande do Sul state in southern Brazil took on heavy rainfall from an extratropical cyclone in recent days that led to flooding and landslides that have caused 13 deaths and damage to more than 3,700 homes. Authorities, who have evacuated about 700 people across the state and carried out about 2,400 rescues, indicate that the capital city of Porto Alegre and the surrounding Greater Porto Alegre area, as well as nearby Caraá City, are the worst affected areas. The events have also left about 80,000 people without power.

CENTRAL AMERICA: DROUGHT / EL NIÑO

KEY FIGURES

100% PROBABILITY OF EL NIÑO OCCURRING IN GUATEMALA BY THE END OF 2023

140 MUNICIPALITIES IN HONDURAS UNDER RED ALERT DUE TO DROUGHT

GUATEMALA

The National Seismic, Volcanic, Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (INSIVUMEH) reports that rainfall in May was below normal throughout virtually all of Guatemala, with south-western areas in particular showing an extreme lack of rain. The lack of rain follows recent INSIVUMEH projections that the El Niño phenomenon is 100 per cent likely to happen by year’s end, surpassing April forecasts calling for a 60 per cent probability. Authorities are bracing for rainfall deficits and high temperatures to hold through July and August.

The lack of rains is already creating needs in Dry Corridor communities, where farming is essential to food security and livelihoods. About half of small growers surveyed in the eastern department of Chiquimula indicate they were unable to carry out their first planting cycle in May. Only about a third of those who did report having lost their crops, meant for family consumption, due to little or no sprouting.

Analysis of previous drought impacts linked to El Niño, current Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) data for 2022-2023, results from the Humanitarian Needs Overview 2022 and other relevant data indicates that the departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Chiquimula, Huehuetenango, Izabal, Petén, Quiché, Sololá and Totonicapán are likely to be the most affected by El Niño. WFP is already undertaking anticipatory action in Chiquimula, delivering fortified seeds to small farmers.

HONDURAS

The National Risk and Contingency Management Secretariat recently placed 140 of Honduras’ 298 municipalities, spread across 10 of the country’s 18 departments, under red alert due the El Niño phenomenon’s ongoing drought impact across the country.

This alert effectively activates the Government’s humanitarian response, prompting humanitarian partners to coordinate support actions. These include mapping capacities for community-level information gathering, mapping municipal-level presence in drought-affected areas and analysis for estimating affected populations, among other activities.

REGIONAL: DISPLACEMENT TRENDS IN 2022

KEY FIGURES

42% OF ASYLUM REQUESTS IN THE WORLD IN 2022 CAME FROM LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN

UNHCR’s recently published Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022 report indicates that more than 2 out of every 5 asylum requests in the world (42 per cent) came from nationals of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Venezuela (264,000, or 186 per cent more than the previous year), Cuba (194,700, a six-fold increase), Nicaragua (up 49 per cent to 165,800), Colombia (up 184 per cent to 90,500), Honduras (up 33 per cent to 79,700) and Haiti (up 10 per cent to 73,500).

By the end of 2022, there were 6 million refugees (800,600) and other people in need of international protection (5.2 million) residing in Latin America and the Caribbean - 17 per cent more than in 2021, and most of whom are Venezuelan. Colombia (2.5 million), Peru (976,000) and Ecuador (555,400) hosted the largest number of refugees and people in need of international protection.

Relative to total populations, Aruba and Curaçao hosted two of the world’s five highest proportions of refugees and other people in need of international protection at 1 in 6 and 1 in 14, respectively. Costa Rica and Mexico were among the five countries that received the highest number of asylum requests with 129,500 and 118,800, respectively

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