Organised by the Cape Verde Maritime Authority, run by a team of IMO consultants and attended by national agencies – the exercise follows the IMO/MOWCA (MoU) and the Code of Conduct concerning the prevention of piracy, armed robbery against ships and illicit maritime activity in West and Central Africa.
IMO has been running this programme, designed to highlight the need for inter-agency co-operation and the development of national maritime strategies and contingency plans, in West and Central Africa, since 2012.
The last event was the 15th table top exercise to be held in West Africa and the second to be held in Lusophone Africa since the project began. A further two exercises are planned for later this year.
The IMO team of consultants consists of Richard Davey, Marcos Augusto de Almeida and Luis Resano
Meanwhile, all 24 students from 14 signatory countries to the Djibouti Code of Conduct have completed the Maritime Law Enforcement course held at the Border Guard’s training facility in Jeddah, the IMO claimed.
This was conducted under the auspices of the Djibouti Code of Conduct (DCoC) and the Djibouti Regional Training Centre with the support and joint supervision of the IMO secretariat’s Kiruja Micheni, and the Border Guard’s Captain Jebreel Al-Hazmi.
Chris Trelawny, special adviser to the IMO secretary general on maritime security and facilitation, said that the course was an excellent example of the multi-disciplinary, multi-agency approach necessary for long-term stability and sustainability, with the coming together of civil/military co-operation,
IMO worked in partnership with Saudi Arabia, NATO, and the European Union, for the benefit of all signatory States (to the Djibouti Code of Conduct), to install the training centre.
The course covered internationally-recognised best practices for planning and conduct of law enforcement operations at sea, from a regional perspective and included theory and practice in planning and execution of maritime law enforcement using simulators.
Instruction was delivered by trainers from Saudi Arabia, the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operations Training Centre (NMIOTC) and the EU MARSIC Project.