In brief
On Monday, the East African Community (EAC) adopted a regional emergency plan to facilitate coordinated responses to ongoing El Nino‑related flooding and heavy rains that are projected to continue through February 2027. The plan prioritises early warning, health, infrastructure, agriculture, food security and climate displacement, and sets out specific risk areas across eight member states. Officials are tasked with mobilising resources, completing an implementation timeline by November 30, and launching a disaster information‑sharing dashboard by November 25.
On Monday, the East African Community (EAC) in Arusha approved a regional emergency plan to coordinate responses to El Nino‑related flooding that is expected to continue through February 2027.
The plan, adopted on Friday during an extraordinary ministerial meeting of the EAC Joint Sectoral Council on Cooperation in Defence Affairs, Interstate Security and Foreign Policy Coordination, covers five priority areas: early warning and anticipatory action; health preparedness and response; infrastructure and tourism resilience; agriculture, food security and livelihoods; and climate mobility and displacement.
According to the statement from EAC headquarters, the plan specifically targets high‑risk zones such as the Lake Victoria Basin, Kenya’s Tana River and coastal regions, parts of Somalia, the Karamoja–Teso cluster, the western highlands of Rwanda and Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania’s Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar.
The extraordinary ministerial meeting also tasked the EAC Secretariat with urgently mobilising resources and finalising an implementation schedule by November 30, while signalling the creation of a regional disaster information‑sharing dashboard to be operational by November 25. Additional directives call for stronger flood‑risk management and measures to safeguard key transport corridors.
Rebecca Kadaga, Ugandan First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Community Affairs who chairs the EAC Council of Ministers, warned that no single member state could manage cross‑border effects of extreme weather alone, emphasising the need for coordinated action.
While the plan’s adoption signals a formal commitment, the exact mechanisms for resource mobilisation and the details of inter‑governmental coordination remain to be worked out, with officials noting that implementation will require substantial cooperation among the eight EAC member states.
