Ghana’s Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral GW Biekro, is convening a conference of senior international Admirals and naval experts to find solutions to further providing security in the Gulf of Guinea.
Attending, the Coastal and Maritime Surveillance Africa (CAMSA) summit on 17-20 March in Accra, will include Ghana’s Vice President, Minister of Defence and Chiefs of all military services. Admirals from the EU, South Africa and other ECOWAS countries will also descend on Accra to discuss the threat of increased insecurity in Africa’s fastest growing region.
Admiral Biekro said, “The increasing insecurity in this maritime common is of global concern…. Maritime Domain Awareness remains our major operational challenge in our effort to secure this large expanse of water…. This is where the relevance of the Coastal and Maritime Surveillance (CMS) Africa Conference and Defence Exhibition comes to the fore. We hope to learn new ways and identify new technologies and partners to deal with the problem of domain awareness in our waters.”
The Ghana Navy has laid out plans to beef up its fleet and has already seen some remarkable results, Admiral Biekro was keen to impress the success of the recent anti piracy missions and one huge drugs bust:
“Specifically, we arrested MT MUSTARD, which was observed collaborating with MT COTTON, which had been hijacked off the coast of Gabon. We also arrested MV ATTIYAH in November last year which was transporting over 400kg of cocaine to our shores.”
Michael Champion, part of IQPC who is assisting the Ghana Navy in organising the conference said:
“The conference will bring together the most senior decision makers in Ghana and West African maritime domains, with all looking to find the next technological solutions that will assist in their desire to get a complete picture of the legal and illegal activities in their coastal waters.
[mappress] Press Release, February 19, 2014, Image: Royal Navy