Africa opens disaster centre

NAIROBI – Eleven mainly east African nations opened a US military-funded disaster management centre yesterday to boost their ability to respond to the natural and man-made calamities that often strike the region.

The US-led project, dubbed “Golden Spear,” aims mainly to increase military and civilian coordination between countries. The plan would be to tackle natural disasters like last year’s Indian Ocean tsunami or, more ominously, man-made devastation like the 1998 suicide bombings of US embassies in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Kenya hosts the centre, built and equipped with modern communication gear at a cost of US$884 000 from the US Defence Department and State Department.Strategically, the centre hopes to give the mostly poor nations involved the ability to handle disasters themselves, relying less on outside assistance and more on a regional network with its own response plan.- Nampa-ReutersThe plan would be to tackle natural disasters like last year’s Indian Ocean tsunami or, more ominously, man-made devastation like the 1998 suicide bombings of US embassies in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Kenya hosts the centre, built and equipped with modern communication gear at a cost of US$884 000 from the US Defence Department and State Department.Strategically, the centre hopes to give the mostly poor nations involved the ability to handle disasters themselves, relying less on outside assistance and more on a regional network with its own response plan.- Nampa-Reuters