Beira, 16 October 2026 – Strengthening the ability to forecast and respond to cyclones, floods and other extreme events by bringing early warning information and tools closer to the areas and communities exposed to risk, such as those in Sofala, which were severely affected by Cyclone Idai in 2019. This is the objective of the new Situation Room at the Sofala Provincial Emergency Operations Centre, inaugurated today in the city of Beira, Mozambique, by the Ambassador of Italy, Gabriele Annis, and the President of the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD), Luísa Meque, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manuela Lucas.
The new facility represents a significant step forward in strengthening Mozambique’s national system for managing the risks posed by extreme weather events. Sofala thus becomes the first province in Mozambique to have a Situation Room integrated into the national system and connected to the regional and continental architecture of the African Multi-Hazard Early Warning and Early Action System (AMHEWAS), promoted by the African Union to improve risk monitoring, information sharing and the ability to act before hazards have an impact.
The inauguration is one of the final milestones of Ready2Act – Improving Coordination Mechanisms and Disaster Preparedness Capacities in Mozambique, a project implemented with the support of Italian Cooperation, involving the INGD and benefiting from the technical contributions of Fondazione CIMA, the Italian Civil Protection Department and the NGO WeWorld.
Over more than two years of activities, Ready2Act has helped strengthen Mozambique’s capacities for monitoring, forecasting and emergency response through technology transfer, the development of flood forecasting tools, technical training and the exchange of experience between Mozambican and Italian institutions. Particular attention has been devoted to strengthening the capacities of national and provincial institutions (INGD, INAM, DNGRH and the ARAs), including through training-of-trainers activities, to ensure the continuity and sustainability of the results achieved.
The Sofala Situation Room is a tangible outcome of the project. It complements the Situation Room at the National Emergency Operations Centre (CENOE) in Maputo, inaugurated in September 2025, helping to build an increasingly integrated system spanning the provincial, national and continental levels.
“Today, we are inaugurating a Situation Room, but above all, we are strengthening a network. Sofala is becoming part of a broader system connected to Maputo, the region and the African continent. At the same time, this network is becoming stronger because it can draw on the experience gained right here, in a province that knows all too well the impacts of cyclones and floods,” said Luca Ferraris, President of Fondazione CIMA.
“Ready2Act demonstrates that an early warning system is built not only on technologies and forecasting models, but also on well-trained people, institutions capable of working together, and information reaching those who need to make decisions and take action in time. Effective prevention is built on this integration of scientific knowledge and institutional capacity.”
As Gabriele Annis, Ambassador of Italy to Mozambique, noted: “The inauguration of the Sofala Situation Room represents a further step towards an early warning system capable of connecting scientific knowledge, inter-institutional cooperation and operational decision-making. This process strengthens Mozambique’s role in the African network for disaster risk reduction and confirms the value of cooperation with Italy in turning the ability to anticipate risks into concrete action to protect people and communities.”
