In an effort to mitigate the negative impact of climate change, new funding by European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) will help bolster disaster risk reduction and community resilience in Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawi and the Comoros.

Impoverished victims of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and former rebels being reintegrated into the community in northern Uganda need urgent support as the region recovers from more than two decades of conflict, an official of the European Union (EU) has said.

"Self-sufficiency is our objective and our main goal," Alam Dipo, secretary-general of the so-called D-8, or Developing Eight Countries for Economic Cooperation, said.