In brief
The East African Community (EAC) adopted a regional El Nino emergency response plan during an extraordinary ministerial meeting held on Friday in Arusha, Tanzania. The plan prioritises early warning, health, infrastructure, agriculture, food security, and climate displacement across key risk areas including the Lake Victoria Basin and several coastal and highland regions. By 30 November the EAC Secretariat must mobilise resources and prepare an implementation plan, while a disaster‑information dashboard is slated for launch on 25 November.
On Monday, the EAC announced it had adopted a new regional emergency plan to coordinate responses to El Nino‑related flooding and heavy rains that are expected to continue through February 2027. The announcement came from the EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, after a meeting held on Friday.
The plan was approved during an extraordinary ministerial meeting of the EAC Joint Sectoral Council on Cooperation in Defence Affairs, Interstate Security and Foreign Policy Coordination. According to the statement, the council convened in Arusha on Friday and adopted the plan during that session.
According to the statement, the plan prioritises five key areas: early warning and anticipatory action, health preparedness and response, infrastructure and tourism resilience, agriculture, food security and livelihoods, and climate mobility and displacement. These themes are intended to guide cooperation among the nine member states.
Priority risk areas identified include 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 the Tanzanian cities of Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar.
The EAC Secretariat was directed to mobilise the necessary resources and submit an implementation plan by 30 November. A regional disaster information‑sharing dashboard was also called for, with a launch deadline of 25 November, and measures to enhance flood‑risk management and protect transport corridors were urged.
Ugandan First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Community Affairs Rebecca Kadaga, who chairs the EAC Council of Ministers, said the council should act in a coordinated regional way. She warned that no member state could manage the cross‑border effects of extreme weather on its own.
The plan was drafted in response to forecasts that heavy rains and flooding will persist in many parts of the region through February 2027. The statement indicated that the plan will help member states prepare for the ongoing El Nino‑driven weather.
Because the EAC is the only regional body that can coordinate weather‑related disaster responses across sub‑regional boundaries, the adoption of this emergency plan marks a significant step in regional climate resilience. The deadline for the dashboard and the agenda for resource mobilisation are expected to spur concrete actions in the coming weeks.
