The French Embassy in Alaouite territory provided details on naval cooperation with the two African countries in the Gulf of Guinea
Morocco, France and Senegal have carried out joint military exercises to fight against illegal trafficking and the insecurity generated by criminal gangs in the Gulf of Guinea, according to the French embassy in the Alaouite kingdom.
The three nations have deployed naval military exercises, along with other countries, demonstrating the high level of military collaboration developed mutually, and above all, between France and the North African nation.
Thus, the French Navy and the Architecture of Yaoundรฉ (a regional cooperation organization between the countries of the Gulf of Guinea to fight against insecurity in the waters of the area), carried out the maneuvers of the Grand African NEMO (GANo), an exercise which takes place once a year and which brings together 17 of the 19 coastal States of the Gulf of Guinea, as well as eight partner States, including France and Morocco.
“Joint deployment of military vessels to better fight against trafficking and insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea. New sign of the important military cooperation between France and Morocco and their common commitment at the regional level”, declared the Embassy of France in Morocco on its account of the social network Twitter.
Morocco deployed a surveillance frigate, while the Senegalese patrol boat Kรฉdougou and the French navy’s PHA Tonnerre, a type of amphibious helicopter carrier, also took part in the exercise, as reported by L’Economiste. Several frigates, patrol boats, speedboats, planes and helicopters from the nations involved took part in the exercise.
PHOTO/TWITTER/LA FRANCE IN MOROCCO/@AmbaFranceMaroc – Grand African NEMO
The exercise, now in its fourth year, took place in a vast maritime area stretching from Senegal to Angola, the French defense ministry said in an official statement. For this fourth edition, the participating countries were Morocco, Angola, Benin, Brazil, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Congo, Cรดte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Italy, Liberia, Nigeria, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Togo, the United Kingdom and the United States.
During this exercise, the navies of these nations participated in maritime security scenarios aimed at “combating illegal fishing, piracy, maritime pollution, illegal trafficking and rescue at sea”, as the press release indicates . official.
Grand African NEMO 2022 has made it possible to strengthen collaboration between the various participating navies by carrying out numerous exercises that reproduce operational conditions close to reality and respond to local issues.
According to the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, these annual exercises alternate between different areas of the Gulf of Guinea, but always with the same objective: “To contribute to strengthening the expertise of the navies of the coastal States and to act together within the framework of the action of the ‘State in the maritime area’.
At the end of these exercises, the chiefs of staff of the navies bordering the Gulf of Guinea will meet in Paris on October 20 for a symposium on three themes: operational training, the exchange of maritime information and environmental safety.
The Gulf of Guinea is a conflict zone due to the insecurity there, although conflicts have decreased in 2021. According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the Gulf of Guinea recorded 34 incidents of maritime piracy and armed robberies in 2021, compared to 81 in 2020. The rate of kidnappings at sea during this period also decreased by 55% in 2021, as reported by Anadolu Agency.