Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – On Tuesday January 22nd, 2022, the tropical storm Ana formed over the Indian Ocean started moving westwards, passing over northern Madagascar and crossed over to Mozambique and subsequently reached Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The tropical storm then made landfall on the 24th of January 2022 in the five countries.
The passage of ANA presented with heavy rainfall, and strong wind causing rivers to overflow, floods, and landslides resulting in casualties, and widespread damage over the entire northern area of Mozambique. Many public infrastructures are damaged including healthcare facilities and homes, as well as, interruption to basic services and healthcare deliveries to the affected people.
As of 27 January 2022, this disaster has caused displacement of more than 121,000 people across the four provinces of Niassa, Nampula, Zambézia, Tete, Sofala and Manica. There have been 20 deaths and 196 people with injuries reported. The Tropical storm ANA made landfall in Angoche district, Nampula province on 24th January, 2022. The storm subsequently headed westwards, significantly affecting Zambezia and Tete provinces.
Madagascar has seen at least 48 deaths and 130,000 people have been forced to flee their homes to temporary shelters. In Malawi, most public infrastructures are damaged including healthcare facilities and homes, as well as, interruption to basic services and healthcare deliveries to the affected communities. This disaster has caused displacement of 49,214 and this include people living with disability, women and children. 107 people are in hospital for serious injuries, and 11 deaths have been reported. The country has suffered a nationwide power cut and some areas have been declared disaster zones.
The Government of Malawi declared the state of emergency in the affected region. The government is calling for humanitarian response to curb the situation. In Zimbabwe and Zambia, the Eastern parts of both countries received torrential rainfalls, floods and strong winds from the Tropical Storm Ana but not as severe damages compared to Mozambique and Malawi.
As at 28 January 2022, a total of 77 fatalities and over 300,000 displaced people have been reported. The effects of this disaster have the potential to result in water hygiene and sanitation related diseases such as cholera and typhoid, and other disease outbreaks on top of the ongoing CoVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the destruction of health infrastructure will further limit essential health services, such as immunization and other clinical services which will have high potential risk for adverse health consequences including mortalities.
The African Union Commission (AUC) has been informed of the Tropical Storm Ana incident, and carefully monitoring the situation, and is ready to offer a comprehensive support to affected countries. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has held an emergency meeting with the Africa CDC Southern and Eastern Africa Regional Collaborating Centres (RCCs) for initial situational assessment and immediate next steps; and is working on deployment of technical assistance from the Headquarter and the RCCs. AUC/Africa CDC will continue to closely monitor the situation and will work with the governments of affected countries to deploy more emergency response support, supplies and equipment as needed. Africa CDC will work closely with the all partners to coordinate and align emergency response activities across the region.
