DRC-Rwanda: Agreement of contingency plan on disaster management

Rwanda and DRC disaster management experts agreed on Thursday, July 19, in Goma, the technical validation work for a joint contingency plan between the two countries and the memorandum of understanding on the prevention and management of natural disasters between the two countries.

Once validated at the summit of the two states, these texts will establish a framework for collaboration between the DRC and Rwanda, particularly in terms of natural disaster management, such as active volcanism.

In case of natural disaster in this area, the joint contingency plan between the DRC and Rwanda will manage the situation well. It will no longer be a question of trial and error, as in the 2002 volcanic eruption. The population of Goma then poured into Gisenyi, Rwanda, without adequate structures for the reception, without any contingency plan.

The provincial minister of the interior, Valérien Mbalutwirandi.i, handed to the delegates of the Congolese and Rwandan ministries in charge of the disaster management, the two texts elaborated on this occasion, for appropriation at the summit of the States, before their next signature.

This work, supported by WFP in DRC and Rwanda, benefited from the expertise of a delegate from ECCAS and MONUSCO.

The civil protection coordinator in North Kivu, Joseph Makundi, says that the contingency plan does not mean that there is a volcanic eruption in sight.