On September 28, 2018, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5, followed by a devastating tsunami, hit the Sulawesi archipelago in Indonesia. The damage is extremely heavy and the Rescue & Development Fund were mobilized on September 30 to launch an international campaign for the benefit of all its NGO partners to meet the enormous needs on the ground. More than 200,000 people were waiting for emergency humanitarian assistance.
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A lot of damage has been done to the infrastructure. Access to water is problematic, particularly in the urban areas of Palu and Donggala where networks have been damaged. The scarcity of water has also led to conflict situations. Some 211,000 people have been displaced. The objectives of the mission were to:
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The earthquakes and tsunami, close together in time and space, were declared a "provincial-level" (not a national-level) disaster, thus not automatically triggering international aid, despite their significant media exposure and major impact on the region. This is explained by the expertise developed by the country and its local actors (including the Indonesian Red Cross) according to the many events that have marked the last few years. The Red Cross Movement has mobilized on the operations carried out by their Indonesian correspondents at the local level. Red Cross teams have mobilized to build 5,000 emergency shelters, distribute more than 6 million litres of clean water, and provide medical and psychological support to more than 16,500 people.
From 2 October, MSF deployed a local team to central Sulawesi, Indonesia, made up of doctors, logisticians and water and sanitation specialists. The NGO conducted a medical and humanitarian needs assessment, in collaboration with the national response mechanism. MSF teams had several objectives: support health care infrastructure, set up mobile clinics, open psychological support cells, distribute drinking water, restore health infrastructure, launch a vaccination and epidemiological surveillance campaign.
