The United States and 11 African nations on Monday formally opened a regional emergency response center in Nairobi, Kenya, to improve East and Central Africa’s capacity to deal with natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
The Regional Disaster Management Centre for Excellence is a key part of Burning Spear, a US-funded series of symposia aimed at helping African countries better respond to weather-related and man-made crises, officials said.
General John Abizaid, the head of the US central command, said the new 24-hour operations centre in Nairobi will save lives by improving disaster response time and efficiency throughout the region.
”Through regional cooperation in a centre such as this, we will build trust, we will build friendship and we will build confidence, and with that, we will continue to save lives of our people in the region,” he said in brief remarks.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said the inauguration of the centre will be instrumental in improving regional awareness and cooperation on best practices for dealing with crises.
”It is obvious that no government can stand alone in the event of a disaster,” Kibaki said in a speech read by Vice-President Moody Awori. ”This marks a beginning of real work to attend to hazards and disasters afflicting the region.”
Burning Spear was launched in 2000 by the US central and European commands, along with the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, to give a forum for the discussion of critical security issues between senior US military and civilian officials and their East African counterparts.
The countries that participate in the program are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, the Seychelles, Tanzania and Uganda. — Sapa-AFP