HUMANITARIAN
DISPATCHES
22/06/05 :
Death toll and damage caused by the tidal wave on December
26, 2004, according to UN figures:
- Indonesia : over 220,000
dead, 500,000 displaced, around 250 hospitals and dispensaries
destroyed, 1755 schools destroyed or damaged.
- Sri Lanka : over 31,000
dead, 4,000 missing, 500,000 displaced, 182 schools destroyed
or damaged.
- Thailand : over 6,000
dead.
- India : over 12,000 dead,
200 schools damaged.
- Maldives : 82 dead.
- Somalia : 78 dead, 289
missing.
17/06/05
:
Declaration by a spokesperson at the Quai d'Orsay (Paris,
June 17, 2005)
The "Emergency Humanitarian Action Orientation Council",
organised a forum on Wednesday June 15 on the subject: "6
months after the Tsunami, what was the humanitarian response
?, which lessons can be learned ?, with a view to informing
public opinion concerning the way in which this crisis is
being followed up and which lessons can already be learned,
whilst humanitarian aid and reconstruction programmes are
still in progress. On this last point, I invite you to consult
the up to date information available on the website: www.france.diplomatie.gouv.fr
This forum was organised to respond to the need
for transparency in informing public opinion, and in particular
donors, about actions taken by various parties in relation
to this crisis. Indeed, this extremely rare yet huge crisis
was met by an unprecedented level of generosity.
Various points of view were expressed by NGOs
and other parties concerning fund-raising, the extent of media
coverage, the means required to resolve logistical difficulties
and the obtsacles to reconstruction in tense political situations.
The existance of a "grey area" between the emergency
and reconstruction phases was pointed out, as was the need
and the great difficulty in attaining effective coordination
of aid in the field. The results of the first assessments
of the start of the reconstruction effort were presented.
The forum was concluded by the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Philippe Douste-Blazy, who underlined his determination
to promote the idea of an international rapid action capability
to react to humanitarian disasters, under the auspices of
the European Union.
16/05/05 :
The regional United Nations agency for Asia has called
upon the international community to honour its donation commitments
to the countries affected by the earthquake and the tsunami
on December 26. The disaster claimed over
176,000
lives and at least 49,000 people are missing presumed dead.
According to Kim Hak-Su, executive secretary of ESCAP (Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), only 2.5
of the 6.7 billion dollars (1.98 bn euros/5.3 bn euros) promised
have been paid to date. M. Kim, who was speaking at a meeting
of the 11 countries in Asia and East Africa affected byt the
disaster, estimated that up to 15 billion dollars (11.87 bn
euros) would be necessary to finance reconstruction in the
next three to five years. Indonesia, the country worst hit,
will need 5 billion dollars (3.96 bn euros), and Sri-Lanka
3.5 billion dollars (2.77 bn euros).
03/05/05 :
The official death toll following the tsunami on December
26 is 176,740 to 184,453, according to figures issued on Tuesday.
49,622 to 50,533 are also missing, most of whom are presumed
dead. 
Hear is the death toll for each country:
- Indonesia : 128,790 dead ; 37.063 missing
- Sri Lanka : 31,225 to 38,938 dead ; 4,013 to 4,924 missing
- India : 10,779 dead ; 5,614 missing
- Thailand : 5,395 dead ; 2,932 missing
- Somalie : 298
- Birmanie : 90
- Maldives : 82
- Malaisie : 68
- Tanzanie : 10
- Bengladesh : 2
- Kenya : 1
31/03/05 :
Over
620 people were killed by the violent earthquake which hit
the Indonesian island of Nias off the coast of Sumatra in
the night of Monday to Tuesday, the UN announced on Thursday.
A total of 600 people lost their lives on the island of Nias,
which was hardest hit, Imogen Wall, UN Development Programme
(UNDP) spokesperson, indicated to the AFP. She added that
she had received confirmation that fifteen people had been
killed on the island of Simeulue, whilst nine others perished
in Sumatra and in the small Banyak island group.
SOLIDARITES programmes are continuing, despite this earthquake
north of Sumatra. Water drilling in camps for the homeless
to enable drinking water wells to be installed is progressing
rapidly, following the arrival of a second drilling machine.
Rehabilitation work has also commenced at Cot Mee school.
30/03/05 :
A violent earthquake measuring 8.2 to 8.7 on the Richter
Scale took place off the coast of the Indonesian island of
Sumatra during the night of Monday 28th to Tuesday 29th March
and Tsunami alerts were issued in coastal areas around the
Indian Ocean, already devastated by the tidal wave on December
26 which claimed nearly 300,000 lives. However, no giant waves
were reported immediately following the earthquake at 16h09
GMT, whose epicenter was located 200 km west-north-west from
Sibolga (Sumatra). 
Sea
levels did however slightly rise along the coast of the Coco
Islands, south of the epicenter. The earthquake left "a
few dozen" people dead on the Indonesian island of Nias,
west of Sumatra, according to an Indonesian spokesperson quoted
by a local television channel. The UN reported scenes of panic
in Sumatra, devastated by the earthquake and the Tsunami on
December 26. "It caused a hight level of panic in Sumatra.
Throughout the island, it was easy to gauge how strong the
panic was", declared Jan Egeland, UN General Coordinator for
Humanitarian Affairs. "No tsunamis have so far been reported
and only minor damage has been reported", he added, emphasizing
that any possible tsunamis occurring would be much less powerful
than those in December. Egeland considered that the alert
system had been much more effective than three months earlier.
According to the geophysical observatory of the Globe in
Strasbourg, Monday's earthquake - which was measured at 8.2
- is almost thirty times less powerful than the December 26
quake, which measured between 9 and 9.5. Fearing a repetition
of the disastrous scenario at the end of December, when tens
of thousands of people perished due to lack of official warnings
about the formation of a giant wave in the Indian ocean, Thailand
issued a recommendation to residents and tourists in coastal
areas, in particular on Phuket island, to move to a safe place.
In Sri Lanka, sirens sounded in the town of Trincomalee and
many coastal areas were evacuated. The earthquake was felt
as far as Singapore and the Malaysian town of Penang.
4/03/05 :
Reconstruction in the South-East Asian countries affected
by the devastating tidal wave 
on
December 26, 2004 will take a decade, warned Margareta Wahlstrom,
UN Tsunami coordinator, in Hong Kong on Thursday. "It will take
ten years to rebuild homes", declared Mrs Wahlstrom. "The nature
of this sort of disaster is that many lives have been lost.
Only a few survivors remain, who are themselves injured, these
physical ravages are almost universal", added the coordinator.
During this forum, it was revealed that around 150 million dollars
have been used so far out of the record amount of 1.7 billion
dollars collected after the disaster. Over 290,000 people are
dead or presumed dead in the eleven affected countries in Asia
and Africa. Hundreds of thousands are still homeless.
16/02/05
:
SOLIDARITES has just equipped itself with a drinking water purification
station, at a cost of 30,000 Euros, which is capable of providing
drinking water to 70,000 people per day. This purification
station will be transported to Sri Lanka as soon as possible.
The distribution of drinking water produced by this station
among the various sites in the region will be carried out using
water tankers.
02/02/05 :
The
number of people dead or presumed dead following the tidal wave
which devastated the coastline of the Indian Ocean on December
26, 2004, has now passed the 290 000 mark, following the
announcement of a higher death toll by Indonesia on Wednesday,
February 2nd. According to these new figures from the Indonesian
Ministry of Health, 237 071 people lost their lives or are missing
in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Furthermore,
the United Nations World Food Programme estimates that around
790 000 people in this region need food aid.
(Photo : Solidarités - W.Daniels)
25/01/05 : New
tidal wave death toll in Asia
: over 280,000 dead or
presumed dead (according to AFP)
The number of people dead or presumed dead following
the tidal wave which devastated the coastline of the Indian
ocean on December 26 now stands at over 280,000, following the
announcement made by Indonesia on Tuesday of a much higher death
toll. At least 228,429 people lost their lives or are missing
presumed dead in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra,
according to new figures issued by the Ministry of Health.
20/01/05 : The
Tsunami has claimed more than 225,000 lives (according to Reuters)
The
latest provisional death toll announced by the Jakarta authorities
following the Tsunami on December 26 in Indonesia is 166,320.
This figure brings the total number of people killed by the
tidal wave which hit South Asia just after Christmas to over
225,000. The 50,000 additional victims announced by Indonesia
on Wednesday had previously been on the list of those missing,
and mainly came from the Aceh provinces in the north of Sumatra,
which were hit especially hard by the disaster.
19/01/05 : Sri
Lanka: targeting and adapting our action
In Sri Lanka, our team is continuouslly adapting and targeting
our action to meet the most urgent needs: a programme to rebuild
80 community wells, 500 latrines and 4 water conveyance systems
in villages hit by the tidal wave is being set up, to allow
the villagers to return home as soon as possible. In parallel,
the SOLIDARITES team is commencing other essential emergency
work: the collection and removal of debris left by the Tsunami
in devastated areas, so that reconstruction can start.
17/01/05 : SOLIDARITES’
work intensifies
Whilst
the number of victims of the tidal wave in southern Asia continues
to rise (nearly 170,000 dead as of January 17, including
over 38,190 in Sri Lanka, and nearly 115,200 in Indonesia),
the missions undertaken by SOLIDARITES are intensifying: Sonia,
our new Mission Leader, is leaving for Sri Lanka with an administrator,
a regional logistics specialist for the Ampara region and a
Hydraulics specialist, whilst Anne and Nasser are flying to
Sumatra in Indonesia, Anne as Mission Leader and Nasser as logistics
co-ordinator. They will be accompanied by a logistics specialist
for Meulaboh and a rehabilitation specialist.
13/01/05 : Development
of SOLIDARITES’ action
In Sri Lanka, the SOLIDARITES team is working on the
initial phases of a vast emergency programme: reconstruction
of 500 wells, 500 emergency latrines and 4
water conveyance systems for 20,000 inhabitants of
villages hit by the tidal wave 
in
the Ampara region on the East coast. The resources involved:
a base in the capital city Colombo, and an operational base
in the town of Ampara itself.
In Indonesia, we are implementing a support programme to aid
2,5OO homeless families, i.e. nearly 10,000 people from 13 villages,
who are taking refuge in 5 camps in the Kuala zone to the south
of Meulaboh. This town has 35,OOO inhabitants and has lost two-thirds
of its population. We need to build 1OO camps, 5 schools and
5 dispensaries (one school and one dispensary per camp) and,
of course, provide drinking water and needless
to say sanitation facilities. Resources here are also being
increased, with a co-ordination base in Medan, and an operational
base in Meulaboh.
Over the next few days, we will have approximately fifteen
volunteers working in the field.
12/01/05 : Generosity
in Geneva, and SOLIDARITES’ efforts in the field
The
donor conference concerning the victims of the Tsunami (number
of victims: over 157,000 dead as of January 12), which was held
in Geneva yesterday, obtained significant results: 717 million
dollars were made available to the UN by the donor countries.
Whilst all this is going on, the SOLIDARITES teams are working
non-stop in the field. Olivier (a hydraulics specialist) arrived
yesterday in the Meulaboh zone (in Banda Aceh) on the island
of Sumatra: in this zone, nearly 10,000 homeless people are
taking refuge in 5 camps, and the drinking water, emergency
sanitation facilities and food-safety requirements are considerable,
with very little international assistance available.
In Sri Lanka, the team is working 20 hours a day on average!
SOLIDARITES is setting up two operational bases in the Ampara
region (East coast) in order to extend their emergency actions.
Plastic covers, vitamin-enriched biscuits and jerry cans will
be distributed tomorrow at the camps sheltering the homeless
people in this region. At the same time, we are also implementing
measures to provide drinking water and sanitation facilities
at these sites, notably via 4 pumps and 2 mobile flexible tanks,
which have been transported to the site.
Bruno, our regional manager who is currently in charge of this
mission on site, was interviewed by France 3 yesterday. Finally,
Sonia is leaving on January 18 to take up the position of Mission
Leader, thereby enabling Bruno to return to the Head Office
in Paris to co-ordinate our actions.
11/01/05 :
Non-stop action for SOLIDARITES
Whilst a summit organised by the UN is being held today
in Geneva in an attempt to materialise the promises for donations
made by the donor countries at the Jakarta
meeting of January 6, SOLIDARITES is working round the clock,
in permanent liaison with our teams on the spot, to deal with
the emergency situation in Sri Lanka and Aceh.
An operational meeting between the managers of the principal
departments is held everyday at the Head Office of SOLIDARITES
in Paris in order to monitor the progress of the aid initiatives.
Several daily satellite telephone liaisons also provide a means
of co-ordinating with the volunteers in the field, and providing
them with all the necessary support.
In Sri Lanka, the SOLIDARITES team managed by Bruno is working
on several fronts: distribution of emergency supplies flown
in by aeroplane (vitamin-enriched biscuits, plastic covers,
jerry cans… etc. ) to the priority zones in Ampara (east
coast, below the town of Batticaloa), which is one of the most
devastated regions (see satellite maps in the "Maps to
understand the crisis” section). At the same time, we
are actively evaluating the entire coastal zone of the Ampara
region, as well as further inland.
In Aceh, to the north of Sumatra in Indonesia, Raoul and Olivier
are finishing their assessments of the most urgent requirements,
with Raoul concentrating on the Banda Aceh zone in the North
and Olivier on the Meulaboh zone in the North West. The extent
of the devastation, and the urgency for access to water and
sanitation facilities in order to prevent the outbreak of epidemics
are already the focus of our operational efforts in the area.
10/01/05 : SOLIDARITES responds
to the humanitarian emergency
With the humanitarian emergency caused by the tidal
wave in Asia as acute as ever (nearly 160,000 people
are dead according to the ever-increasing estimates
given by the countries concerned [as of the morning of Saturday
January 8] and official figures also reveal that more than 20,000
are still missing), and with another earthquake recorded
in the region of Aceh in Sumatra last night (no victims), SOLIDARITES
has mobilised all its resources to meet the urgent requirements.
Our teams are working relentlessly in Sri Lanka and the region
of Aceh in Sumatra, to assess needs and to distribute emergency
aid. At the Head Office of SOLIDARITES in Paris, long hours
are being worked, with operational meetings sometimes going
on until midnight and week-ends being worked to accelerate progress!
In addition to the operational demands, initiatives aimed at
mobilising all the financial resources necessary for responding
to the emergency are also being launched: special reports on
our site, emergency letters sent to our donors and a very rapidly
launched large-scale press campaign. The situation is
still an emergency, and we must remain mobilised!
07/01/05 : Number
of victims and donor promises (according to Le Monde and Libération)
Number of victims
A spokesman for the ministry of Indonesian social affairs announced
on Friday, January 7, that at least 113,306 people had died
in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, after the
powerful earthquake and tidal wave that hit the region on December
26.
The Presidency announced that the current number of victims
in Sri Lanka stands at 30,513 dead as of Thursday, January 7,
and that 3,870 people are still missing.
