Documented December 22, 2025 | Updated December 25, 2025
Active Emergency
Cyclonic Storm Ditwah made landfall on Sri Lanka's eastern coast on November 28, 2025. The humanitarian response is ongoing. Over 1.2 million need humanitarian assistance. 527,000 children affected. One of Sri Lanka's worst disasters in two decades.
This crisis compounds existing hardship. Sri Lanka is still recovering from its 2022 economic collapse. Poverty has doubled since 2019, rising from 11.3% to 24.5%. Now a cyclone has devastated communities already struggling to survive.
The hardest-hit areas are the central hill districts—Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla—where tea plantation workers live in aging, British-era housing. These communities were already among Sri Lanka's most vulnerable. The cyclone brought landslides that buried homes.
Over 85,000 people remain in government-run safety centers. 1.1 million lack access to clean water and health services. Education has been disrupted for 561,000 children.
Clean water is critical. Food insecurity is rising as farmland and supply chains suffer extensive damage. The health system is under mounting strain.
The UN's Humanitarian Priorities Plan requires $35.3 million. The Central Emergency Response Fund has contributed $4.5 million so far. IOM is appealing for $7.3 million. WHO has provided $175,000 for essential health services.
Immediate needs: shelter materials, clean water, medical care, food assistance, protection services for children and vulnerable populations.
Sri Lanka's crises compound. The 2022 economic collapse. Rising poverty. Now a cyclone. Each new disaster lands on people who haven't recovered from the last one.
Most of the dead were tea plantation workers—people whose labor built the colonial economy, now living in housing that was never meant to be permanent. The cyclone didn't create these vulnerabilities. It revealed them.
UNICEF Sri Lanka
IOM Cyclone Ditwah Appeal
WHO Sri Lanka Emergency
ReliefWeb - Sri Lanka