Goma: ECCAS supports the implementation of the regional contingency plan

Expert in risk management, disasters and adaptation to climate change of the ECCAS (Community of Central African Economic States), has been living for 48 hours in Goma in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dominique Kuitsouk made the trip to North Kivu, at the request of the authorities of this province, to help the province often faced with the difficulties related to natural disasters including those caused by volcanic eruptions of Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira.

The expert from ECCAS is working to facilitate the work of the pooling of the Regional Contingency Plan of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that of the Republic of Rwanda, in anticipation of possible volcanic eruptions in the region, in accordance with the recommendations formulated following the simulation exercise organized in July 2017 by the Civil Protection Service of North Kivu. This activity is part of the draft of a regional contingency plan initiated in 2015 by the Civil Protection Service of North Kivu Province in partnership with CBCA-CHRISTIAN AID.

Well before this meeting, the Congolese and Rwandan experts met last June in Rubavu (Rwanda) to agree on joint activities to set up a regional contingency plan, as well as a protocol of collaboration between the two. States in case of a possible volcanic eruption.

During this work in Goma, the experts from the DRC and Rwanda have to develop, among other things, a joint plan to respond to the volcanic emergency.