ReliefWeb

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

An earthquake of 5.9 magnitude hit north-west Tanzania, Kagera region, on September 10 2016 at about 15:27 hours local East African time (12:27 GMT). The epicentre of the earthquake was reported to be about 44 km from Bukoba town, which is located on the shores of Lake Victoria, near the border with Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. It was reported that the earthquake occurred at a depth of 10 km and was categorized as being shallow. Shallow earthquakes are viewed to have a greater impact.

Kagera region has a total population of 2,458,023 with 1,814,481 people living in the six affected districts (Population Census, 2012).

A rapid assessment was commissioned by the government and led by UNDAC confirmed that six out of eight districts in the region were affected. A total of 17 people died and 139,161 people were directly affected with 2,500 homes completely destroyed and14,500 others partially destroyed. This led to most of people spending the night outside or with host families. Others continued to stay in the destroyed houses despite the imminent danger. The findings highlighted a need to support the affected population in areas of shelter (both emergency and recovery), food and non-food items, health care, WASH, protection and education. To get a more in-depth understanding of the impact of the earthquake, in line with the DREF strategy a detailed assessment was carried out in four of the worst affected districts of Bukoba Urban, Bukoba Rural, Karagwe and Misenyi. A total of 56 wards and 146 villages were assessed. The following table shows the population distribution of the Kagera region. In addition, the map shows the geographical locations of the districts in the Kagera region.

The major donors and partners of the DREF included the Red Cross Societies and governments of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA, as well as DG ECHO, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) the Medtronic and Zurich Foundations and other corporate and private donors. The IFRC, on behalf of the Red Cross Society of Tanzania would like to extend many thanks to all partners for their generous contributions.

Summary of response Overview of Host National Society

As soon as the earthquake hit, on 10 September 2016, TRCS Kagera Branch deployed around 70 volunteers and staff across the region to support those affected. TRCS performed an initial rapid needs assessment between the 11 and 15 of September 2016, and the detailed assessment on 17 October - 3 November 2016. The initial rapid assessment was for Bukoba Urban district where 60 volunteers were mobilised. The assessment was conducted for five days.

A total of 350 people were transported by Red Cross staff and volunteers to the various health facilities in the region to receive medical attention, another 230 people received first aid, meaning in total 590 people received emergency first aid. In addition, another 4,882 people were reached with psychosocial support (PSS) services. A total of seven bodies were moved to the mortuaries.

TRCS distributed relief items to 1,399 households. The relief items distributed included blankets, tarpaulins, bed sheets, food, buckets, water, tents etc. TRCS also constructed three tents to temporally host 54 affected families (households) and a fourth tent served as a temporary dispensary to support health services at a site where a dispensary was partially destroyed in Misenyi district. Moreover, awareness was raised on the health risks to the affected households.

TRCS also participated in burial of those who died in the disaster by preparing the bodies for decent burial and participating in the joint mass.

Overview of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in country IFRC deployed on Regional Disaster Relief Team (RDRT) teams of two persons to support TRCS in its response to the disaster. The RDRTs deployed were,

• One RDRT Logistics and Relief (deployed for one month)

• One RDRT PSS (deployed for two months)

In coordination with Eastern Africa and Indian Ocean Island (EA-IOI) cluster support team based in Nairobi (Kenya) the RDRTs supported the TRCS in the following areas,

• Conducting in-country market survey to identify local suppliers for NFIs

• Training of volunteers in PSS and Logistics/Relief.

• Procurement of items identified in the DREF to be procured in-country

• Undertaking a detailed assessment with key focus on emergency shelter, and PSS. Other areas were WatSan, food, education and other vulnerability aspects of the community affected.

• Distributing NFI’s

• Performing first aid and PSS activities.

Additionally, the IFRC finance delegate who was supporting the National Society with the Emergency Appeal (MDRTZ017), also supported the DREF operation in financial reporting. Furthermore, an IFRC logistics officer from EAIOI office supported TRCS during the distribution of the items.

The Iran Red Crescent Society sent a half ton truck load of relief goods comprising water, biscuits and some medicines to distribute to affected communities.

ICRC and IFRC collaborated in identifying and assessing the viability of sourcing and supplying the NFIs to the disaster area from Nairobi.