GIS & RS Update on Disaster Risk Reduction For Eastern and Southern Africa

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The changing climate is exerting a heavy toll in Eastern and Southern Africa, unleashing more frequent and severe weather events such as droughts and floods that exert pressure on human life, displacement, and damage to infrastructure. Amidst such adversity, the need for more robust disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies in these regions has never been more critical. Therefore, in many African governments disaster risk reduction policies and strategies have ascended the list of national priorities, with efforts directed towards resilience building and adaptation. However, the continent remains highly vulnerable due to high exposure, and the increasing complexity of crises.

In Eastern and Southern Africa, the journey to managing disasters and building resilience is gaining momentum through integration of innovative Geospatial and Earth Observation technologies, however there’s much ground to cover. This must change. It’s essential to enhance disaster risk reduction in Africa using Geospatial technologies and Earth Observation amid the escalating impacts of climate change. Earth observation (EO) satellites and other space-based technologies have seen considerable advances over the years, and are key in identifying, mapping, monitoring and often forecasting both natural and human-induced hazards. Therefore, preparedness, early actions and early warning is enhanced reducing the impacts of disasters

The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) has compiled this article to highlight ongoing disasters across its Member States for information purposes only. The article provides an overview of the nature and dynamics of these events, while also outlining the tools, products, and services available within the RCMRD’s Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Unit to support disaster risk management (DRM) efforts.

Where applicable, the article will also reference interventions undertaken by RCMRD in response to official requests from Member States. These interventions are typically delivered through geospatial analysis and remote sensing products to support DRM services. Additional information included in the article is sourced from established partners and publicly available reports to ensure comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of disaster situations across RCMRD’s member states.

Disasters in our Member States, January 2026

Ethiopia

● Disaster Type: Earthquake

● Description: The earthquake happened in Tigray state with moderate effects, affecting 12,000 people. (Source: GDACS)

Kenya

● Disaster Type: Drought

● Description: Kenya is facing a worsening drought crisis with more than 23 counties already affected. The hardest hit are Marsabit, Mandera, Turkana, Wajir, Isiolo, and Garissa. (Source: KRCS)

Malawi

● Disaster Type: Flash Floods / Strong Winds & Lightning

● Description: 29 districts and roughly 163,000 people and 36,283 households have been affected across the country. Additionally, at least 40 deaths have been reported. (Source: DODMA)

Somalia

● Disaster Type: Drought

● Description: Approximately 4.6 million people are facing crisis levels of hunger. (Source: WFP)

South Africa

● Disaster Type: Riverine / Flash Floods

● Description: Heavy rainfall received from the start of January. Flooding has been reported in various provinces namely; Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, and North West. The economic impacts of the floods have been vast, with Limpopo reporting $240 million in damages. Kruger National Park has had to evacuate 600 tourists and staff from flood-affected camps. (Source: South African Government News Agency)

Tanzania

● Disaster Type: Floods

● Description: In Kilosa District in Morogoro, flooding has affected approximately 5,045 people, damaging houses, roads, farmlands, and community facilities.

Zambia

● Disaster Type: Riverine / Flash Floods

● Description: 2,260 displaced people and more than 370 destroyed houses across the Lundazi district and the Lumezi district, both in the Eastern province. Additionally, more than 27,000 hectares of farmland have been affected. (Source: Global Disaster Awareness & Coordination System)

Zimbabwe

● Disaster Type: Riverine / Flash Floods

● Description: Flooding has affected Masvingo, Manicaland, Midlands, and Mashonaland East provinces. At least 70 deaths since the start of the year, with more than 1,000 homes destroyed, and schools, roads, and bridges collapsing under the force of the floods. (Source: JBA Risk Management)

Mozambique

● Disaster Type: Floods

● Description: The hardest hit provinces by flooding are Gaza, Maputo, Inhambane, and Sofala, with 700,006 people affected. More than 325,000 livestock have been lost, over 285,000 hectares of agricultural land have been damaged, and significant losses have been reported to fishing assets and boats. (Source: IOM)

Countries with No Disasters Reported

● Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.

Key RS and GIS Issues in Disasters in 2026

The convergence of near–real-time Earth Observation, AI-driven analytics, Quantum computing and Digital Twins within Geospatial frameworks is shifting disaster risk reduction from reactive mapping toward proactive, predictive, and impact-based decision support. Near Real-time hazard monitoring remains a critical challenge in DRR due to the low temporal resolution of many current Earth Observation (EO) systems, which limits timely detection, monitoring, and response to rapidly evolving hazards such as floods and landslides. However, the emergence of EO satellite constellations, together with the anticipated deployment of microwave (SAR) geostationary satellites, is significantly reducing revisit times. These developments enable rapid, dense, and continuous data streams, enhancing the capacity of RS and GIS systems to support near–real-time hazard monitoring and early warning.

Key information from other Organisations

The International Charter: Space And Major Disasters

Description: Floods in Southern Africa in January 2026

Reference:https://disasterscharter.org/activations/floods-in-southern-africa

World Health Organisation

Description: Worsening food insecurity in 2026 in Kenya due to Drought following the driest October to December 2025 rainy season on record.

Reference: https://www.afro.who.int/countries/kenya/news/drought-leaves-over-two-million-vulnerable-health-and-nutrition-crises-kenya

ICPAC

Description: Climate Watch Advisory: The Evolving Dry Conditions in Eastern Africa

Reference:https://www.icpac.net/publications/climate-watch-advisory-the-evolving-dry-conditions-in-eastern-africa-january-2026-update/

Key Recommendations

1. Adopt quantum computing to reduce processing latency associated with the rapidly increasing volumes of data. The growing volumes of Earth Observation data from satellites such as the Sentinel constellation which are critical for monitoring drought affected areas in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, or tracking flood progression in South Africa, Mozambique, and Malawi can overwhelm conventional computing systems. Quantum computing can reduce processing latency, enabling near-real-time analysis of hazards and quicker dissemination of early warnings to affected communities.

2. Scale the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Earth Observation to transform Disaster Risk Management (DRM). AI can automate satellite tasking, data acquisition, and feature extraction, turning raw data into actionable intelligence. For example, AI could rapidly identify flooded areas in Mozambique or Zimbabwe, map damaged infrastructure in Tanzania or South Africa, or monitor vegetation stress to anticipate worsening droughts in Kenya and Somalia, thereby accelerating response and resource allocation.

3. Invest in digital twins for DRM as a transformative technology for large-scale simulations, scenario modelling, and uncertainty quantification. Digital twins enable proactive assessment of hazard impacts under different climate and land-use conditions, support risk-based planning, optimise resource allocation, and strengthen early warning and anticipatory action.

Highlighted Projects

Impact-Based Forecasting for IGAD Region

In the IGAD region, flood and drought-related disasters are recurrent and cause severe socio-economic damage. To address this, the project Towards actionable impact-based early warning in Africa: Integrating exposure and vulnerability into early warning system in IGAD region (EWS4IGAD) seeks to expand existing hazard-based early warning systems toward impact prediction-based systems that also consider exposure and vulnerabilities related to floods and droughts. The project pilot countries are Kenya and Ethiopia with a vision to cover the rest of the IGAD countries: Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

RCMRD’s Contribution During Disaster

The RCMRD collaborates closely with international, continental, regional, national, and sub-national partners to support Disaster Risk Management (DRM) services before, during, and after disaster events. The Centre plays a critical role in ensuring that its Member States and stakeholders have timely access to, and the capacity to effectively utilize, space-borne and geospatial information during emergencies.

This mandate is anchored in the RCMRD Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy (2026–2030) and reinforced by its designation as a Regional Support Office (RSO) of the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) in Africa. RCMRD is also an affiliate of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and currently serves as co-secretariat of the Africa Network of Centers of Excellence for Disaster Risk Management (NOE) under the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Through these strategic roles and partnerships, RCMRD strengthens regional coordination, enhances technical capacity, and promotes the effective use of earth observation and geospatial technologies in disaster preparedness, response, and resilience-building across Africa.

Review and Co-Development Workshop of the Tana River County Hazard Atlas Map

RCMRD, under the invitation of the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) supported the review and updating of the Tana River County Hazard Atlas on 26th to 30th January, 2026. Tana River, a sub-national region in Kenya, is one of the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) county in Kenya that is now facing new hazards such as sea water intrusion, heat waves, invasive species - Prosopis Juliflora locally known as mathenge - and pandemics. RCMRD, having designed initial atlases, supported in creating a roadmap towards developing an updated hazard atlas document that will be used in DRM activities in the county

On-Going Projects

Earth Observation (EO) and Geographical Information System (GIS) Needs Assessment for Disaster Risk Reduction in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The objective of the requirements assessment on the application of Earth Observation (EO) and Geographical Information System (GIS) technologies for disaster risk reduction is to evaluate the current application of EO and GIS throughout the disaster risk management cycle, from preparedness and early warning to response and recovery. It also seeks to identify the key institutional, technical, and operational gaps that limit their effective use. The findings will provide a clear understanding of existing capacities, challenges, and opportunities, guiding future investments and interventions to strengthen the use of geospatial technologies for disaster risk reduction across the region.

DRR Unit in Brief

The Disaster Risk Reduction Unit of the RCMRD aims to strengthen the technical capacity of its Member States to mitigate and manage the adverse impacts of weather variability and climate-related extremes through the application of innovative geoinformation and Earth observation solutions that support sustainable development.

RCMRD in Brief

RCMRD was established in Nairobi- Kenya in 1975 under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU), today African Union (AU). The mission of RCMRD, an inter-governmental organisation, is to strengthen the member states through Generation, Application and Dissemination of Geo-information and Allied technologies for sustained development. RCMRD currently has 20 contracting member states in Eastern and southern Africa: Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Useful Links

RCMRD Website: https://www.rcmrd.org

RCMRD Geoportal: https://geoportal.rcmrd.org

RCMRD Hazard Atlases: https://opendata.rcmrd.org/pages/atlases

RCMRD DRR Geoportal: https://drr.rcmrd.org

Issued by RCMRD DRR-Unit