Terror attacks: US helps Africa

2005-08-15 14:11

Nairobi - The United States and 11 African nations on Monday formally opened a regional emergency response centre to improve east and central Africa's capacity to deal with natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

Officials said the regional disaster management centre for excellence is a key part of "Golden Spear," a US-funded series of symposia aimed at helping African countries better respond to weather-related and man-made crises.

General John Abizaid, the head of the US Central Command, said the new 24-hour operations centre in Nairobi would save lives by improving disaster response time and efficiency throughout the region.

He said: "Through regional co-operation 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."

Improving regional awareness

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said the inauguration of the centre would be instrumental in improving regional awareness and co-operation on best practices for dealing with crises.

Kibaki said: "It is obvious that no government can stand alone in the event of a disaster. 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 participated in the programme were Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Syechelles, Tanzania and Uganda.

- AFP