May 2019
Update On Achievements
Operational Context
On 14 March 2019, Tropical Cyclone Idai became one of the deadliest storms ever recorded to hit Southern Hemisphere. The cyclone caused catastrophic flooding, landslides and large number of casualties across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. In Mozambique, the hardest hit by the cyclone, nearly 240,000 houses were damaged and over 111,000 totally destroyed. Approximately 1.85 million people are in need of assistance, over 27,000 people are still sheltered in accommodation centres and more than 42,000 people are in permanent relocation sites across the four affected provinces of Manica, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia. While Mozambique was still recovering from Tropical Cyclone Idai, even stronger Tropical Cyclone Kenneth made landfall in Cabo Delgado Province on 25 April causing loss of life and extensive damage to infrastructure and housing. Nearly 200,000 people have been affected in northern Mozambique. In Malawi, nearly 870,000 people were affected including some 87,000 people who were displaced from their homes. The most affected districts include Chikwawa, Machinga, Nsanje, Phalombe and Zomba.
In addition, some 1,900 Mozambican nationals, forced to seek safety in Nsanje District, still remain in Malawi. In eastern Zimbabwe, heavy rains and strong winds caused riverine and flash flooding.
Over 270,000 people were affected, 122,000 in Chipinge and 115,000 in Chimanimani districts. In addition, approximately 5,300 refugees and asylum-seekers living in Tongogara Refugee Camp were severely impacted as 1,060 houses, latrines and water boreholes were completely or partially damaged.
Tropical Cyclone Idai caused extensive loss of life, large-scale destruction of infrastructure and a surge in humanitarian needs far exceeding the response capacities of governments and humanitarian actors. On 22 March 2019, the Emergency Relief Coordinator activated an IASC Humanitarian System-Wide Scale-Up in Mozambique for an initial period of three months. UNHCR joined the collective UN system response in all three countries. As UNHCR’s response needed to be scaled up significantly, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi activated UNHCR emergency procedures covering all three countries in order to facilitate the delivery of the Office’s commitments under the IASC system-wide Scale-Up protocols. This allowed UNHCR to take the necessary actions to scale up its operational capacity, including mobilizing and/or re-allocating human, financial, material and other relevant resources. The close involvement in the joint humanitarian response also demonstrates UNHCR’s solidarity with the people in the region who have for decades generously hosted refugees and shared their limited resources with them.
UNHCR also deployed emergency teams, consisting primarily of protection staff, to the three affected countries to support the response as well as to lead the Protection Clusters that have been activated by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee to protect people with specific needs coping with the aftermath of the disaster. UNHCR is particularly concerned about the safety and well-being of women and girls, unaccompanied or separated minors, disabled and elderly people living in overcrowded conditions in multiple makeshift displacement sites. Many female-headed households are also facing heightened risk of exploitation and abuse as their sources of income and livelihoods were destroyed by the cyclone.
UNHCR is coordinating closely with the authorities and partners, including UNICEF and UNFPA, to ensure that protection is mainstreamed throughout the response, including through preventing and responding to gender-based violence as well as sexual exploitation and abuse. In Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, some people have reportedly lost their identity documents when their homes were destroyed or damaged by heavy winds and flooding. As protection cluster (co) leads, UNHCR is working closely with relevant authorities and partners to assess the situation and provide the support needed by the three governments.
As UNHCR was already implementing refugee operations in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, the Office was able to join the collective UN system wide response in all the three countries promptly. UNHCR swiftly airlifted approximately 240 MT of shelter and relief items from global stockpiles to the three countries affected to assist initially some 36,000 most vulnerable cyclone survivors. In particular, family tents and plastic tarpaulins were delivered to shelter those who had lost their homes, mosquito nets to protect from malaria, jerry cans and water buckets to store clean water to prevent cholera and other waterborne diseases, solar lanterns to provide light during the night and to recharge mobile phones, as well as sleeping mats and blankets to keep warm.
UNHCR will be providing additional relief items for persons affected by the cyclone in coming days. On 14 May, the Government of Mozambique deactivated the national emergency for the Tropical Cyclone Idai situation and initiated the reconstruction phase. Mozambique will host an International Pledging Conference to secure support for reconstruction following the devastation caused by cyclones Idai and Kenneth. The event will be held on 31 May and 1 June in the city of Beira. In Malawi, the Government launched the Return and Relocation Strategy, which aims to decongest the sites for displacement. In Zimbabwe, long-term settlement planning remains a concern. It is expected that temporary camps will be required until end of 2019. Early recovery assessment and planning is nearing completion. The World Bank estimates that the recovery cost will be US$ 640 million.