ISMI’s regional cooperation training on Yaoundé Architecture concept ends in Abidjan

The Interregional Maritime Security Institute (ISMI) on Thursday, April 28, 2022, successfully concluded its regional cooperation programme on maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea based on the Yaoundé Architecture concept.

The training which started on Monday, April 25, 2022, had participants from 7 West and Central African countries including Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Ghana, Niger, and Ivory Coast.

The Yaoundé Declaration of June 25, 2013, laid the foundation for the Yaoundé Architecture concept, designed to improve maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea.

Despite a significant decrease in acts of piracy in 2021, the Gulf of Guinea is still considered today as one of the most dangerous areas in the world.

The Gulf of Guinea is also one of the world's richest fishing grounds, but also one of the areas most affected by the phenomenon of IUU fishing. The European Union estimates these losses at 1.5 billion euros per year.

As for illicit trafficking, the production of cocaine (to name but one) is exploding and the flows to Europe are adapting to the growing controls in the Caribbean. Thus, the route to Europe via West Africa and then the Mediterranean is now considered by the UNODC as the main artery of cocaine.

It is on the back of this that ISMI has organised the training as part of its vocation to promote a safe, secure, clean, and sustainable maritime space in the Gulf of Guinea.

Speaking at the training, Chief Administrator of Maritime Affairs who doubles as Regional Coordinator for State Action at Sea, Guillaume TURQUET de BEAUREGARD stressed that it is entirely legitimate for ISMI to take up such a subject.

He said effective regional cooperation is an obvious response to the issues raised facing the Gulf of Guinea, insisting that it is what the Yaoundé Summit of Heads of State concluded in 2013 by establishing a "maritime security architecture" in the West and Central Africa.

“The quality of this seminar is directly linked to the quality of the exchanges that you will be able to have among yourselves, i.e. between the participants and the speakers, but even more so among the participants themselves.

“This course is of a particular kind because it does not meet the classic standards of a vertical delivery of knowledge, but rather a sum of shared experience beneficial to all participants,” Guillaume TURQUET de BEAUREGARD said.

He stressed the idea of the seminar is to take stock of the evolution of maritime threats in the region and to review the activity of the structures resulting from the Yaoundé Declaration, in particular through the feedback of the main actors of these institutions.

He added that it is also to consider the prospects for the development of collaboration processes between the countries concerned through the consolidation of information exchange mechanisms and the operational handling of crisis situations.

In his conclusion, Guillaume TURQUET de BEAUREGARD extended appreciation to the French cooperation, the Ivorian State, as well as ARSTM for the various roles, played to put together the training.