Typhoon Rai, which tore through very poor parts of the Philippines in December, affected three times more people than first thought and caused damage that was "
grossly underestimated
", announced the UN.
Read alsoPhilippines: UN seeking $6.5 million to help victims of Typhoon Rai
A campaign to raise over $1 million in aid for the victims was launched a week after the typhoon hit the southern and central Philippines, leaving 406 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. shelter.
But it finally turns out that the number of people affected by the typhoon is not three but nine million, and much larger funds are going to be needed, explained the official of the UN in the Philippines, Gustavo Gonzalez.
"It's a crisis within a crisis"
"
A month after the arrival of Super Typhoon Rai, we realize that we had initially greatly underestimated the extent of the devastation
," he said during a press conference by videoconference. More than a million and a half houses have been destroyed or damaged, and entire regions, already weakened by Covid-19 on top of poverty and malnutrition, have seen their economy “
literally razed
”.
Humanitarian groups are working with the government to distribute drinking water, food, tents and building materials.
But the scale of the disaster and the fact that electricity and communications have not yet been restored in certain regions make their work particularly difficult, while government coffers have been almost emptied by the Covid-19 crisis for two years.
And the relief workers have to work in regions affected by the Omicron variant, and with incessant rain which further complicates the work.
“
It's a crisis within a crisis
,” commented Gustavo Gonzalez.
He also underlined that for the moment, only 40% of the funds pledged by the various countries had been paid.