The disaster and the Red Cross Red Crescent response to date
On 16 April 2016, at 6:58 pm local time, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake (Richter scale) struck off the coast of northern Ecuador. The epicentre was closest to the area between Cojimíes and Pedernales (Manabí province) and near the Muisne canton (Esmeraldas province) in an area 170 kilometres northwest of the country’s capital of Quito.
16 April 2016: The Ecuadorian government declared a state of emergency with a red alert in six provinces: Manabí, Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo, Los Ríos, Santa Elena and Guayas. The area of Pedernales (Manabí province) has been declared a disaster zone.
18 April 2016: Swiss francs allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) 405,778 Swiss francs to provide humanitarian aid to 40,000 people
22 April 2016: Emergency Appeal launched for 18,350,836 Swiss francs to support 100,000 people for 12 months.
10 May 2016: Operations update no. 1 issued.
The Ecuadorian Secretariat for Risk Management (SGR) reports that the 11 May earthquake caused 660 deaths and 13 people are still missing. The Ministry of Public Health provided emergency health care for 51,376 people, of whom 4,605 were injured. As of 11 May, 7,633 family and 28,911 people were in collective centres and 166 of the 560 schools affected were registered with moderate and serious damage. In the morning of 18 April 2016, a 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck the coastal town of Rosa Zarate in the province of Esmeraldas, and a 6.8-magnitude earthquake was registered in Rosa Zarate that same day at 12:46 pm. The Ecuadorian government has taken efforts to respond to this emergency through its technical working groups that respond to needs for health; water, sanitation and hygiene promotion; infrastructure; comprehensive attention (economic and social inclusion); security; productivity and livelihoods; education and culture; strategic infrastructure (electricity, hydrocarbons, refineries, telecommunications); waste management; and volunteering. According to the information from the Ecuadorian Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES), as of 22 April 2016, 37 previously-designated collective centres and temporary collective centres were activated in which 5,896 families (26,091 people) were living; but mentioned before the number of people in centres has increased in May. On 26 May 2016, the Ecuadorian government created a Committee for Reconstruction and Productive Reactivation of Employment in the affected areas to implement State policy and actions in the affected areas.