Congo: Maritime experts meet in Pointe Noire, vow renewed efforts to fight piracy

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The waters of the Gulf of Guinea, wealthy in hydrocarbons and fisheries assets, are progressively presented to theft, said security authorities from the area meeting Monday in Pointe-Noire, southern Congo.

“This region is one of the critical zones for global exchange (…) wealthy in hydrocarbons addressing a fourth of the world’s stores” said Congolese Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, who directed the kickoff of the discussion coordinated with the French Defense Ministry.

“Strangely, it is a high-hazard sea zone following the movement of the peculiarity of oceanic robbery from the Gulf of Aden situated on the Horn of Africa” he added.

As indicated by the top of the Congolese government, the Gulf of Guinea, which extends from Senegal to Angola, has recorded for the year 2020 alone, 195 assaults on ships with means and strategies for privateers constantly fortified for quite a while.

Around the same time, 130 of the 135 kidnappings of sailors recorded on the planet, or over 95%, occurred around here, as indicated by a new report by the International Maritime Bureau.

In 2013, the 19 nations that make up the Gulf of Guinea set up the “Yaoundé engineering” to complete joint and deliberate activities against theft.

This third release of the conference of heads of staff of the Gulf riparian nations denotes the start of the operationalization of this design, as indicated by the coordinators.

It will end on Tuesday with the association of the Grand African Nemo work out, a unique exhibition of naval forces off Pointe-Noire.

“This sort of discussion means to trade on issues that are normal to the Gulf of Guinea nations: predation on regular assets, including fisheries assets, robbery obviously and the peculiarity of unlawful migration” disclosed to AFP General François Xavier Mabin, authority of French powers in Gabon.

Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Nigeria, DRC, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Congo-Brazzaville are taking an interest in this gathering.