New UN aid appeal for Mindanao

THE UN and its partners have revised upwards their emergency appeal for storm-affected Mindanao to US$39 million ($48.47 million) from the original US$28.4 million ($35.3).

The second emergency revision of the Humanitarian Action Plan for Mindanao (HAP) was revised on 3 February, allowing for continued vital assistance to more than 300,000 people over a six-month period.

"We focused on the immediate evacuation in the early days... We now need to ensure that we accelerate the safe, voluntary and early return and relocation of the displaced," David Carden, country head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN in Manila.

The move comes in response to what has been described as a "dramatic increase of needs" more than a month after tropical storm Washi struck northern parts of the island.

More than 1,200 people lost their lives and another million were affected when Washi struck on 16-18 December, triggering flash floods and landslides. Worst affected were the two major cities, Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, in the north of the island, along with hundreds of villages in the area, according to the country's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

Tens of thousands were driven into hastily erected evacuation centres, many of them schools, where they were provided with basic needs such as food, clothing, medicine and shelter after the government and aid organizations launched a large-scale relief operation for more than 400,000 people. According to OCHA, about US$9.6 million (or 25 per cent) of the initial appeal, including US$3 million disbursed from the Central Emergency Fund (CERF), has been provided to date; however, outside bilateral donations from various governments amounting to US$22 million had also helped significantly in the humanitarian effort.IRIN