MAPUTO, (The Southern African Times) – The Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Center (COHE) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was officially launched in northern Mozambique’s Nampula province on Monday.
In the Nacala district of Nampula, the Mozambican President and Rotating Chairperson of SADC Filipe Nyusi and the President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi, who is also the Acting President of the SADC Organ for Cooperation in the Areas of Politics, Defence and Security, co-chaired the event.
The COHE will function as a regional coordination institution to meet the challenges and impact caused by climate change and assist in the rapid recovery of affected member states and supply of necessary equipment for the support teams, said Nyusi during the ceremony.
“The magnitude of the humanitarian impact of the crises that were registered during our presidency, impelled us to seek and align the priorities of our external policies with those of our internal acting, particularly in the humanitarian domain, to contain the impact and losses resulting from climate disasters,” said the president.
He said that Mozambique alone had lost about 150 million U.S. dollars to weather disasters, including the three cyclones that left hundreds of people killed and millions affected in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
The investment in such initiatives, whose multiple functions include prior notice, intervention before, during and after a disaster, and reinforcement of resilience, has also reasons of economic and social nature, Nyusi emphasised.
