Emergency aid for Mozambique and other countries affected by Cyclone Idai

Subject: Emergency aid for Mozambique and other countries affected by Cyclone Idai

Cyclone Idai caused wholesale destruction in Mozambique.

President Filipe Nyusi confirmed in Maputo yesterday that the death toll in the provinces of Manica and Sofala could reach more than a thousand people and said that the country was ‘experiencing a major and genuine humanitarian disaster’. A large part of the city of Beira may have been destroyed.

What is more, the Tete region of Mozambique recently suffered severe flooding.

Malawi and Zimbabwe were affected by Idai and have reported fatalities, destroyed crops, damage to a wide range of infrastructure and cut-off populations.

What humanitarian or other aid – particularly supplies of rescue equipment, food and medical assistance and help to get infrastructure up and running again and to restore the production potential of affected areas – could be mobilised urgently to reach the populations affected by this natural disaster?

In addition to emergency aid, would the Commission consider proposing that development aid funds, particularly the European Development Fund, be stepped up?

Answer given by Mr Stylianides on behalf of the European Commission

(29 April 2019)

Severe flooding and cyclone IDAI have caused significant casualties and damage to homes and infrastructure in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. On 19 March 2019, just after the cyclone's landfall, the European Union released an immediate EUR 3.5 million package of assistance, to support access with air services to cut-off areas and hard-to reach communities and for immediate shelter, water and sanitation.

This came in addition to EUR 250 000 in initial humanitarian assistance to support the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the response of the national Red Cross societies in Mozambique and Malawi.

On 9 April 2019, the European Union mobilised an additional EUR 12 million in humanitarian assistance for the three countries to provide shelter, water and sanitation, food, health and psychosocial support.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism (EUCPM) was triggered for Mozambique following a request from the Government, and emergency medical and rescue teams, water purification teams, communication systems support and in-kind assistance from nine Member States (1) have been mobilised. In addition, two EU Civil Protection Teams were deployed over the weekends of 23-24 March and 8-9 April 2019 respectively, composed of humanitarian, coordination, logistics, hydrology, epidemiology and assessment experts.

In addition, the EU Copernicus Emergency Management Service has so far produced and shared 58 delineation and grading maps for the three countries.

While humanitarian support is still ongoing, the EU continues the close engagement with development colleagues to look at more medium to long-term interventions.

⋅1∙ Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, France and Austria. | | ( | | )