Rapid response team trained

The first ever African UN rapid response, disaster mitigation team is ready for deployment to emergencies around the continent, officials said on Friday.

The UN’s Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team would be used for natural and man-made emergencies in Africa and across the globe.

"It was important to establish an African team, as it will be able to respond faster to an emergency in Africa as well as have a better understanding of the culture and speak the language," said Jesper Lund, the course organiser.

"Upon request of a disaster-stricken country, the team can be deployed within hours to carry out rapid assessment of priority needs and to support national authorities and the United Nations resident coordinator to coordinate international relief on-site," he added.

The team, which is provided free of charge to the disaster-affected country, is responsible for providing first-hand information on the emergency situation.

"The UNDAC Team consists of disaster management professionals who are nominated and funded by member governments, UN agencies and international organisations, and are permanently on stand-by to deploy to relief missions following disasters and humanitarian emergencies anywhere in the world," Lund added.

It will also assess priority needs of the victims to the international community through the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Its activities will also help strengthen national and regional disaster response capacity, officials who took part in the training told IRIN.

To date the UNDAC Team has conducted 123 emergency missions in more than 68 countries since its creation in 1993. They were among the first into the troubled region of Darfur in western Sudan and were deployed in Haiti.

Their two-week training was completed on Friday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Some 34 participants from 14 different African nations took part in the two-week training course, organised by the OCHA Field Coordination Support Section in Geneva, Switzerland and supported by the OCHA Country Office in Addis Ababa.