National Emergency Management Agency
Disaster management agency
Mongolia's lead disaster management institution (NEMA). Parliament approved the Law on Disaster Protection on 20 June 2003, and NEMA was established on 7 January 2004 by merging the State Board for Civil Defense, the Fire Fighting Department and the State Reserve Agency (Asian Disaster Reduction Center country profile; PreventionWeb, UNDRR).
Under the Law on Disaster Protection, NEMA is the specialised organisation responsible for implementing state disaster protection policy and legislation and for conducting disaster protection activities nationwide, with an emergency management department or division in all 21 aimags and the capital city. Its duties include disaster risk assessment, prevention and preparedness, search and rescue, response and recovery, and implementation of state reserve policy (PreventionWeb, UNDRR; Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, Disaster Management Reference Handbook, May 2022).
PEOPLE
Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh
First head of the National Emergency Management Agency, 2004-2006 (agency head list, National Emergency Management Agency profile)
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Gombojavyn Ariunbuyan
Chief of NEMA since 18 July 2020, as Major General; he opened the August 2025 conference with the Italian Civil Protection Department on resilient infrastructure as NEMA Chief (Embassy of Italy in Ulaanbaatar, 5 August 2025; Embassy of Belarus in Mongolia, 20 September 2024)
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T. Badral
Chief of NEMA from 2015 to 18 July 2020, immediately before Ariunbuyan (agency head list, National Emergency Management Agency profile)
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MONEY
The state reserve role - DOCUMENTED
Managing, coordinating and delivering state reserve items and activities, including emergency stockpiles, is one of NEMA's listed functions in the disaster management system (Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, Disaster Management Reference Handbook, May 2022).
RECORD
Formation - DOCUMENTED
The Law on Disaster Protection was approved by Parliament on 20 June 2003 and NEMA was established on 7 January 2004 as the merger of the State Board for Civil Defense, the Fire Fighting Department and the State Reserve Agency, as a specialised organisation implementing state disaster protection policy nationwide (Asian Disaster Reduction Center country profile).
The 2023-2024 dzud - DOCUMENTED
During the 2023-2024 dzud, among the harshest winters in fifty years, NEMA search and rescue teams responded to more than 89 alert calls for missing people and rescued over 1,430 people trapped by heavy snow by 19 February 2024, when livestock deaths had reached 667,841 (UNICEF Mongolia Dzud Situation Report, 21 February 2024). A Government of Mongolia and UNDP assessment launched on 28 May 2025 put total livestock losses in that dzud at over 7.44 million (UNDP Mongolia, 28 May 2025).
The Ulaanbaatar gas explosion, 24 January 2024 - DOCUMENTED
A truck carrying 60 tonnes of liquefied natural gas collided with a car at an intersection in Bayanzurkh district, Ulaanbaatar, at around 1 a.m. on 24 January 2024 and exploded. Six people were killed, including three firefighters, and 11 people were injured; NEMA head G. Ariunbuyan said gas had leaked after the truck made a sharp turn and hit the car (Voice of Mongolia, 25 January 2024, reporting the Associated Press and NEMA).
Equipment and clothing supply - REPORTED
The Ulaanbaatar Post reported NEMA head G. Ariunbuyan as saying that the supply of special technical equipment stood at 57 percent nationwide and 55 percent in the capital, that the supply of personal protective clothing was 35-48 percent, and that about 300-350 billion tugrik was needed to purchase all clothing and accessories (The Ulaanbaatar Post, undated article on firefighter safety, reporting statements after the January 2024 explosion). Research in progress on NEMA's budget and state reserve spending lines.
A filled seal is documented. An open seal is an allegation, source named.
How to read this page. Every line names its source. A line marked ALLEGATION is a claim already published by the named source and already in the public record. Decode Mongolia republishes it as reported, with the source named, and has not verified it. An allegation is not a finding, and nothing on this page is proof of wrongdoing.