Brest (© 2024 Afriquinfos) – In recent years, numerous efforts have been made by the countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea and their allies in securing the area. However, while attacks have declined, drug trafficking has seen an increase. Hence the strengthening of surveillance with the assistance of the French Navy and also seminars aimed at structuring regional cooperation in maritime security.
One of the oldest French military operations in Africa is not land… but naval. Indeed, since 1990, as part of Operation Corymbe, France has regularly deployed one or two ships in the Gulf of Guinea in order to contribute to securing this area, in conjunction with most of the navies of the nineteen countries. local residents. “France relies on the links it has been able to forge and maintain for more than 30 years with partners in the region, in particular thanks to the various mandates of Operation Corymbe, as well as on its expertise and its national model in State Action at Sea [AEM]. It thus supports the rise in power of coastal navies and, at the same time, shares its know-how in order to enable coastal States to ensure the security of their maritime spaces themselves. explains the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
To date, these operations continue and make it possible to secure the Gulf of Guinea and reduce attacks on ships by pirates, as evidenced by the recent mission of the patrol boat Commandant-Birot of the French Navy. ”No attacks to report in the last three months,” informs the captain of this Aviso A69 patrol boat, Aurélien de Gove. The latter testifies to operations carried out in recent months. These include the assistance of the Ghanaian navy in the interception of a boat suspected of drug trafficking and the rescue of seven fishermen lost off the coast of Angola for a week.
For the French Navy officer, ”it was the good coordination between the different countries that made it possible to act, thanks to a regional command center. Called “Yaoundé architecture”, since 2013, a regional command center based in the Cameroonian capital and common software (Yaris) make it possible to communicate and coordinate the fight against all kinds of trafficking in the Gulf of Guinea at the regional level. and in cooperation with France”.
Speaking of the architecture of Yaoundé, representatives of the countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea, the French navy and partner states in securing the area are currently meeting for three days in Brest in western France. This seminar is devoted to political strengthening of the “Yaoundé process”. This agreement concluded ten years ago aims to structure regional cooperation in maritime security.
SB
