NNS ANDONI, first locally-made warship constructed by Nigerian Navy engineers, to be commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan, at the Nigerian Naval Dockyard, Victoria Island, Lagos, tomorrow.
The area also spans two regions, namely West and Central Africa.
This vast maritime space is not only of utmost economic significance to the adjoining countries and landlocked states but also have political, military and economic importance to the east and west power blocs.
Similar to other maritime spaces, the Gulf of Guinea also faces security challenges which threaten optimal utilization of its economic benefits. For this reason, it has become imperative for all stakeholders to continue to ensure that the area remains safe from all forms of maritime criminalities.
It is therefore instructive that the Nigerian Navy, in partnership with other African navies, have teamed up with the United States of America to engage in annual sea exercise code-named “Obangame” to demonstrate their capacity to secure the region from pirate attacks.
The word ‘Obangame’ which means “togetherness” comes from the Fang language of southern Cameroon and other parts of Central Africa. It all began in 2010 when US Naval-Forces for Africa facilitated regional exercises which focused on increasing capabilities to deter piracy, illicit trafficking and other maritime threats.
Over the years, it has developed from basic tactics to regional cooperation, with a focus on improving the capacity of African navies to combat maritime crimes in order to allow economic activities to flourish at sea.
The multinational sea exercise, sponsored by the United States Naval Force Africa (US NAVAF), is also aimed at promoting regional cooperation among navies of Gulf of Guinea.
Among the aims of the exercise is to improve maritime domain awareness, information sharing and enhance the collective capabilities of GOG and West African nations to counter illegality in the maritime domain.
A total of Eight Nigerian Navy Ships (NNS) including two Offshore Patrol Vessels (Centenary and Unity), helicopters, one ship each from US, Portugal and Morocco, were deployed during the 2019 sea exercise on the Gulf of Guinea which lasted five days.
The voyage kicked off on March 15, with all-night patrols of the Gulf of Guinea waters by NNS Unity and Centenary, with newsmen on board for five days without berthing.
Speaking at a pre-event briefing, Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Western Naval Command, Rear Adm. Obed Ngalabak, said about 31 countries, including 20 African nations and 11 allied countries, were participating in the exercise. Ngalabak said: “The Obangame Express is aimed at assessing and improving GOG law enforcement capacity, promoting national and regional security, improving knowledge of African Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership (AMLEP) planning and operations and shaping security force assistance efforts.
“The overall objectives are to assess each of the participating countries’ capabilities in Maritime Domain Awareness and Maritime Interdiction Operations.’’ During the exercise, several simulation operations took place such as search and seizure techniques, drills onboard, gun exercise, man overboard, firefighting and search and rescue.
The exercise also afforded the navy the opportunity to focus on improving its interoperability of communications and sharing of the maritime domain awareness information.
The participating vessels finally berthed on March 21 at Naval Dockyard Limited and NNS BEECROFT, respectively, to mark the closing of the event. Speaking at the end of the sea exercise, Commander, US Naval Force Africa, Admiral James Forggo, said countries that participated this year did better than they did in 2010.
“I have served in the Headquarters of the African Partnership Station since 2010 and when we started, we did not have maritime operational centres and the Yaounde Code of Conduct in the maritime domain of the Gulf of Guinea.
“Now, countries collaborate better than they did in 2010 because of relationships built as a result of OBANGAME Express held every year. “We have made incredible progress each year. This year was even more difficult. We had sniffer dogs for anti-drug trafficking simulations.
We had Special Boats Services (SBS) from the Nigerian Navy. “For the first time, we had the Maritime Domain Awareness Centre as part of the exercise,” he said. Forggo said he was enthusiastic about success recorded in the past nine years and looked forward to the 10th year.
“I give this year’s exercise an A+. Firstly, we had 33 countries, 2500 participants from navies and coastguards from GoG nations, Europe, Cape Verde and North America, all coming to participate in maritime domain security. “In the last couple of weeks, we have had 85 series of exercises, 95 ships some as big as NNS Thunder and others as small as patrol crafts.
“We had 12 aircraft participating and providing Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR). “We did so many exercises, some started off slow and easy till it got very hard like a vertical assault at sea; that is training with risk. We will take the lessons learnt and implement in the next one,” he said.
The Chief of Naval Staff, Nigerian Navy, Vice Adm. Ibok-Ette Ibas, says the exercise was organised every year to foster regional cooperation and information sharing amongst the GoG navies. He said it is also to foster cooperation among friendly navies towards tackling cross border banditry and other maritime criminalities.
“It also created a platform for the operationalisation of the Harmonized Standard Operation Procedures for arrest, detention and prosecution of the criminal vessel in our waters,” he says. Ibas says the role of the federal law agencies were also helpful in the exercise which gave rise to more cooperation and team spirit.
The Minister for Defence, Mansur Dan- Ali, during the closing ceremony, called for transnational combat against maritime criminalities in the Gulf of Guinea. He said maritime illegalities had become transnational and evolved beyond the scope and capability of one nation to combat.
“The scourge of various forms of illegalities such as sea robbery, piracy, crude oil theft, poaching human and illicit trafficking of weapons and drugs, among others, constitute serious challenges to the development of the countries in our region.
“One commonality amongst these maritime threats is that they have become transnational and have evolved beyond the scope and capability of one nation to combat. “For most of the Gulf of Guinea Navies and Coast Guards, therefore, one of the major implications of the emerging security equation is the increasing demand for maritime policing functions,” he said.
The minister commended the navies of the Kingdom of Morocco, Portugal, United States and other regional navies that had dispatched warships and personnel to participate in the sea exercise, which involved multiple simulated maritime scenarios and responses.
“I also commend our US partners for the initiative to bring heads of navies and coast guards from nations within the GoG and beyond together for the exercise,” the minister said. It is, therefore, expected that the various participating countries in the annual military show of strength, otherwise known as Obangame Sea Exercise, will demonstrate similar commitment by deploying commensurate security in the Gulf of Guinea.
KYLEOIVREPORTS.
Comments
Post a Comment