Crisis watch

Cyclone Kenneth, Mozambique

The cyclone-induced rains have caused significant flooding, which has destroyed sanitation facilities and contaminated water sources. Communities visited by CARE and the COSACA consortium have been drinking untreated water from shallow wells and rivers, exposing themselves to risks of cholera and waterborne diseases. The Mozambique government has requested 1.8 million Oral Cholera Vaccine (OCV) doses for Cabo Delgado provine; only 516, 000 have so far been secured for Pemba and Mecufi.

Most of the CARE staff have now moved to the Ibo islands to continue distributions in Ibo, Matemo and Quirimba islands. After a slow start due to logistical and access issues, CARE managed to reach more than 4,000 people in three accommodation centres on Ibo island, and has carried out distributions on the nearby islands of Paesse and Ndegane. We have distributed hygiene kits, dignity kits, tarpaulins, mosquito nets and chlorine to these affected families. See the video update (below) from our team on Ibo island:

CARE Mozambique is currently working with two teams only and has requested additional staff to make four teams to complete the distribution in Ibo and Islands within the next two weeks. CARE continues to engage with the UN and other humanitarian agencies working in Cabo Delgado.

Syria: Idlib

Around 180,000 people were displaced between 29 April and 9 May by an escalation of conflict in northwest Syria. Many humanitarian responders and service providers are part of the affected population and in many areas, humanitarian operations have been suspended; CARE has been forced to suspend some activities in conflict areas, including parts of Idlib and Aleppo governorates, due to airstrikes, shelling and damage to premises.

Since 3 May 2019, CARE has reached 39,000 individuals in northwest Syria, with clean drinking water, food rations, mobile health clinics, psychosocial support activities, personal hygiene items, shelter rehabilitation and makeshift shelter items, including plastic sheets, mattresses and blankets. As the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, CARE and the organisations it partners with in Syria aims to scale up our humanitarian response in the coming weeks. CARE will continue to monitor the situation and work with its local partner organisations to ensure that the aid response is timely and coordinated.

Cyclone Fani, India

CARE is reaching out to 10,000 households in the immediate relief phase of the response. We will be providing shelter and WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) kits to people in the most marginalised communities in Puri and Khorda districts of Odisha. We then aim to reach 5,000 households, in the early recovery phase of our response, with WASH training and support on livelihood opportunities.

During a distribution of shelter and hygiene items to 70 families in Purohitpur village (Puri district), one recipient, Banga Bhoi, told us:

I lost my house. This support means a lot to me and I never expected I will receive so many things.

Bangladesh refugee camps

CARE is continuing to work with Rohingya refugees in the camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, to help people prepare for the monsoon season. Read more about our preparations in this one-page PDF document:

Bangladesh-refugee-camps_Monsoon-Preparedness_May-2019.pdf

Many shelters are in precarious positions and are at risk from high winds, flooding or landslides. Monowara, who lives in Camp 13, told us:

My house is on the top of the hill. Now that the rainy season is coming, we are very scared. The hill soil is becoming lose; it is already falling off.

Sabukunnahar (above), who lives in Camp 16, told us:

We came here from Myanmar so that we could live in peace, to live without threats. But my house up on the hill is at risk of falling down due to wind and rain. In the coming weeks, the storms will increase, and I am scared. I am afraid that my son and daughter will fall down the hill. We need to move to a safe home. That is what we require now.

Syria: Idlib

CARE International is extremely concerned at the recent escalation of violence in northwestern Syria, including in areas in and around the demilitarized zone. Heavy bombardment and airstrikes have caused the displacement of more than 150,000 people within a week. Rana, the Director of the Syrian organisation Women Now, a CARE partner organisation in Idlib, said:

The bombardment [has] caused a huge wave of displacement from the suburbs. The situation is miserable because most of the displaced people don’t have a place to go. The lucky ones can stay in their cars that have their belongings and some food. But others are staying in the open, in parks or open fields. There’s no cover for them but the sky.

CARE has been working closely with its local partners to monitor the situation and we have so far reached more than 18,000 people with distributions of essential household items, including water buckets, tents for shelter, and hygiene kits for women and adolescent girls, as well as new arrival kits with essentials for those who have moved with nothing but what they could carry.

CARE and its local partners also provide cash assistance to displaced families to help them cover their basic needs and ready-to-eat meals. We are also providing psychological first aid and protection referrals through our mobile clinics.

• Read more in our media release Over 100,000 civilians have nowhere to seek refuge as violence in Syria’s Idlib intensifies