Category: Government

HIGHLIGHTS

• In late-January 2022, the Tropical Storm Ana weather system brought winds, heavy rains, damage and destruction to parts of Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, affecting several hundred thousand people.

• In Madagascar, the Tropical Depression caused by the Tropical Storm Ana weather system made landfall on 22 January, compounding the flooding caused by an Intertropical Convergence Zone around 17 January.

• A new weather system—Tropical Cyclone Batsirai—has formed in the Indian Ocean in recent days and is expected to make landfall on the east coast of Madagascar around 5 February, after passing by Mauritius and Reunion.

SITUATION OVERVIEW

The 2021/2022 cyclone season in the south-west Indian Ocean intensified in January 2022, with Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe all facing damage and destruction from heavy rainfall and flooding.

Tropical Storm Ana

In Madagascar, intense rainfall in January caused flooding, landslides, destruction of infrastructure and loss of life, particularly affecting the country’s capital, Antananarivo, and other areas of Analamanga Region, in the centre of the country. The rains were initially driven by an Intertropical Convergence Zone around 17 January and increased when a Tropical Depression—which subsequently formed Tropical Storm Ana—made landfall in the east of the country on 22 January and exited the other side of the island on 23 January. At least 131,000 people were affected across 7 regions, including 71,000 people who were displaced according to authorities. At least 58 people have died, almost all of them in the capital, where traditional houses collapsed, and others were swept away by landslides. Although people have since begun to return to their homes, the situation may deteriorate again in the coming days with the approach of Tropical Cyclone Batsirai, which is currently projected to make landfall in Madagascar as an Intense Tropical Cyclone on 5 February.

In Mozambique, Tropical Storm Ana made landfall in Angoche district, Nampula province, on 24 February, significantly affecting the provinces of Zambezia, Nampula and Tete. The storm has affected nearly 141,500 people and damaged or destroyed at least 13,670 houses (more than 7,700 of which have been completely destroyed). Essential services have been significantly impacted, with 30 health centres damaged and more than 2,400 classrooms destroyed by the storm, affecting nearly 300,000 students. At least 25 people have died, and 220 were injured, during the devastating floods caused by Tropical Storm Ana. Further details on the situation in Mozambique are available here.

Tropical Storm Ana then passed through southern Malawi, causing heavy rains and flooding, with some weather stations recording more than 300 millimeters (mm) of rainfall within a 24-hour period, including Masambaniati (360mm), Mpemba (344 mm), Supuni in Chikwawa (336 mm) and Chileka (305 mm). More than 110,800 people (22,174 households) have been displaced by the floods and are staying in 122 displacement sites, according to the latest data from the Government of Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA). At least 33 people have died, and 158 were injured, while a further 20 people remain missing. The storm caused damage to homes, roads, bridges and other infrastructure (including schools, health centres and churches). The districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje have been hardest-hit, according to satellite imagery analyzed by UNOSAT. The heavy rains also damaged a key power plant, leading to the temporary disruption of power supply across large parts of the country. On 26 January, the President of Malawi declared a State of National Disaster and called for support and assistance for people affected by Tropical Storm Ana.

In Zimbabwe, the passage of the Tropical Storm Ana weather system caused destruction and damage in at least six provinces, with Manicaland Province hardest-hit. At least 3,000 people have been affected by heavy rains and flooding, and schools, bridges and roads were damaged.

Tropical Cyclone Batsirai

Tropical Cyclone Batsirai has intensified and is now moving west/west-south-west at about 19 kilometres an hour (kh/h).

Batsirai is expected to pass by Mauritius at the end of the day today, 2 February, and Reunion tomorrow morning, 3 February, according to the latest forecast from Meteo France. Mauritius is experiencing wind and rains, which are expected to gradually improve tomorrow. Reunion has been on orange alert since 6 a.m. on 2 February, and conditions have begun to deteriorate, with gusts exceeding 100km/h on the coast and 120km/h in the highlands, according to Meteo France.

Batsirai is expected to make landfall on the east coast of Madagascar—likely between Mananjary and Mahanoro districts— as an Intense Tropical Cyclone at the end of this week. All of the eastern coast of Madagascar has been placed on green alert in anticipation of the cyclone’s landfall, which is expected to have a significant impact.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Residents in an inundated neighbourhood of Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo are returning with dread to see what remains of their homes and harvests, three days after Tropical Storm Ana relented.

Flooding has killed 51 people on the large Indian Ocean island off southeastern Africa since 10 days of intense rain began on January 17.

The storm formed to the east of Madagascar last week, causing floods and landslides and affecting around 130,000 people, with many made homeless overnight.

Ana then hit Mozambique and Malawi on the African mainland, killing 90 people across the three countries.

Rescue crews are still battling to access regions where roads and bridges have been swept away after the storm cut off tens of thousands and left them without power.

Travelling on makeshift boats, small groups row through water and a common floating plant called tsifakona normally given to pigs as food.

Some refused to spend the 300 Malagasy ariary ($0.08) for transport and are forced to carry their children where the water level remains high.

“I woke up at three o’clock in the morning to go to the toilet and found my house full of water,” said Ulrich Tsontsozafy, 66.

Recalling the ordeal from the top of a pile of chairs in his waterlogged room, the retired soldier is trying to find ways to avoid having his feet constantly in the water.

“It ruins your skin. It chafes and it infects,” he said of the floodwater, showing a fine white film that has developed on the skin between his toes.

– Humanitarian emergency –

Residents in Antananarivo’s swampy Betsimitatatra plain are used to living with water thanks to an ingenious system of wooden pontoons that usually connect houses.

But the storm has engulfed everything with a brownish water that reeks of silt, while rats seeking food swam at the surface for a few days.

Tsontsozafy’s rice paddy, coconut tree and avocado tree were destroyed.

His wife, Juliette Etaty, 65, managed to save some bags of rice, heaped up with pans and clothes in a pile that reaches their ceiling.

Their grand-daughter Luciana, 17, remembered waking up in the middle of the night with her feet dipped in water.

“The first thing I thought of was my school notebooks,” she said.

Gyms and schools in the capital have been requisitioned and turned into emergency shelters.

But the family preferred not to go for fear of catching Covid-19 in a crowded space and leaving their home vulnerable to burglars and the elements.

Toky Ny Nosy, an unemployed 42-year-old, took shelter in a school as she thought her home was about to collapse under the weight of the deluge.

She also suffers from asthma and said the water was preventing her from breathing properly.

Despite coming back to her neighbourhood every day for almost two weeks, the water still reaches her hips.

Hundreds of families huddled in a classroom converted into an emergency shelter watch the arrival of a truck laden with food for the evening.

But “there’s never enough,” said Toky.

Source: Seychelles News Agency

Highlights

• In 2021, Madagascar saw multiple humanitarian crises affecting 9 million people including 4.3 million children. Acute drought left 1.5 million people food insecure in southern Madagascar.

• Children were also vulnerable to other disasters including flooding, cyclones, and COVID-19.

• In July 2021, a corporate L2 Emergency Response was declared.

UNICEF together with its partners stepped up to respond to the critical needs of 2.6 million people including 1.3 million children struggling from drought and other humanitarian crises.

• UNICEF provided lifesaving immediate services including the treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and emergency water delivery.

• Nearly 60,343 SAM children were admitted into therapeutic care of whom 90% were cured.

• UNICEF’s WASH interventions have reached a total of 415,000 people affected by drought. This is 83% (500,000) of the planned target within UNICEF, and 67% of the target planned by WASH cluster. Healthcare facilities and mobile clinics reached 282,500 people, composed of 257,900 children under five and 24,600 pregnant women.

• About 37,500 people (22,500 children) benefited from humanitarian cash transfers.

• Around 1,400 child protection actors were trained to better prevent and respond to child protection violations. Action on GBV and PSEA was intensified through training of 700 stakeholders.

Source: UN Children’s Fund

Mali has accused France of breaching its airspace and threatened unspecified consequences if it happens again.

Mali’s military government Wednesday condemned France for flying a military plane into the country from Ivory Coast this week.

In a statement, government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga called the flight Tuesday from Abidjan to Mali’s city of Gao a “clear breach” of its airspace.

Maiga also accused the French military plane of switching off its communication with Mali’s aviation authorities.

He threatened consequences if the incident is repeated, saying Mali’s government would “refuse any liability relating to the risks to which the perpetrators of these practices could expose themselves.”

A French military official, who refused to be named, denied the claims to Agence France-Presse, saying all procedures were respected and that Malian authorities had approved the flight.

The French military maintains a base in Gao, to help Mali fight Islamist insurgents, after gradually withdrawing troops from other bases in northern Mali.

The statement came just hours after a West African aviation authority accused the French military plane of violating regional sanctions against Mali.

The Dakar, Senegal-based Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar also told Mali’s National Civil Aviation Agency it was not notified of the flight in advance.

The Economic Community of West African States Sunday banned transport and trade between member states and Mali after the military leaders delayed elections.

Leaders of Mali’s August 2020 coup promised elections in February but last week announced a plan to hold the polls in 2026.

France is supporting the ECOWAS sanctions against Mali and its national airline, Air France, Wednesday suspended all flights to Mali until further notice.

Source: Voice Of America

U.S. consumer prices jumped 7% in December compared to a year earlier, the highest inflation rate in 40 years, the government’s Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Higher prices coursed throughout the U.S. economy in 2021, with the biggest increases since 1982. The annualized jump in December was up from the 6.8% figure in November and was a half-percentage point gain over the course of a month.

Analysts say robust consumer demand collided with coronavirus-related supply shortages, pushing up prices over the year for big ticket items like cars and furniture, but more importantly for must-buy, everyday purchases like food and gasoline for motorists.

Despite the year-over-year inflation surge, President Joe Biden said the report “shows a meaningful reduction in headline inflation over last month, with gas prices and food prices falling.”

He said it “demonstrates that we are making progress in slowing the rate of price increases. At the same time, this report underscores that we still have more work to do, with price increases still too high and squeezing family budgets.”

The rapidly rising costs for consumers have caught the attention of the White House and policy makers at the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, even as they say they expect inflation to remain high throughout 2022.

In November, Biden called for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate “mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil and gas companies.” The Fed is signaling new efforts to rein in inflation by ending its direct financial support of the economy in March, sooner than originally planned, and to increase its benchmark interest rate that influences borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a congressional committee Tuesday that getting prices down to more stable levels was key to ensure a lasting recovery from the pandemic.

“If inflation does become too persistent, if these high levels of inflation become too entrenched in the economy or people’s thinking, that will lead to much tighter monetary policy from us, and that could lead to a recession and that would be bad for workers,” Powell told lawmakers.

For consumers, inflation is often more of a daily fact of life than other aspects of the American economy that have recovered smartly since the coronavirus pandemic first swept into the U.S. in March 2020.

The U.S. economy added a record-setting 6.4 million jobs last year, the unemployment rate dropped from 6.3% in January to 3.9% in December and rank-and-file workers’ hourly paychecks rose by 5.8%. Government assistance checks sent to all but the wealthiest American households helped many families.

But prices consumers paid rose markedly.

Government statistics showed that gasoline prices paid by motorists at service stations were up 58% last year, while the price of used cars and trucks were up 31% and new vehicles by 11%.

Meat, poultry and fish prices were up 13%, furniture and bedding by nearly 12%. Fast-food and casual dining places raised their prices by nearly 8%.

Source: Voice of America

U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to “leverage” the federal government’s scale and purchasing power to make it carbon neutral, cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 65% in less than a decade and establish an all-electric fleet of vehicles.

The order will cut emissions in federal operations as part of the government’s effort to combat climate change.

Biden’s directive requires that government buildings consume 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030, the U.S. fleet of vehicles be 100% electric by 2035, and federal contracts for goods and services be carbon-free by 2050.

“The United States government will lead by example to provide a strong foundation for American businesses to compete and win globally in the clean energy economy while creating well-paying union jobs at home,” the White House said in a statement announcing the climate change initiative.

Source: Voice of America

France is willing to discuss autonomy for the French Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe if it is in the interests of the people who live there, government minister Sebastien Lecornu said.

Guadeloupe and the nearby French island of Martinique have seen several days of protests against COVID-19 measures that have spilled over into violence.

Lecornu, the minister for France’s overseas territories, said in a YouTube video issued late on Friday that certain elected officials in Guadeloupe had raised the question of autonomy, changing its status as an overseas region.

“The government is ready to talk about this. There are no bad debates, as long as those debates serve to resolve the real everyday problems of people in Guadeloupe,” he said.

That was one of a series of initiatives he said the government in Paris would be taking in Guadeloupe, including improving healthcare, infrastructure projects, and a scheme to create jobs for young people.

The French government this week announced that it would be postponing a requirement that public sector workers in Guadeloupe and Martinique get a COVID-19 vaccination.

That had sparked protests, fanning long-standing grievances over living standards and the relationship with Paris.

In Guadeloupe there is a historic mistrust of the French government’s handling of health crises after many people were exposed to toxic pesticides used in banana plantations in the 1970s.

Source: Voice of America