Integrated Maritime Strategy aims to support maritime security in West Africa

Experts meet to discuss Draft Supplementary Act

NIGERIA: Independent experts met in Lagos last week to discuss the draft Supplementary Act Relating to the Suppression of Illicit Maritime Activities in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which aims to promote cooperation and strengthen the operational legal framework to combat illicit activities committed at sea.

This project was carried out in the framework of the implementation of the ECOWAS Integrated Maritime Strategy (EMIS) in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) through the Support to West Africa Integrated Maritime Security (SWAIMS) project.

The meeting was attended by representatives of ECOWAS Directorate of Peacekeeping and Regional Security, ECOWAS Directorate of Legal Affairs, Regional Maritime Security Center for West Africa (CRESMAO), Maritime Multinational Coordination Centres (MMCC) Zones E and G, UNODC, and by Consultants and Independent Experts.

During the opening ceremony Francis Omiunu, National Programme Officer of UNODC, noted that, as an implementing partner in the SWAIMS project, UNODC remains committed to supporting the entire criminal justice system, from sea to land, in order to ensure that ECOWAS Member States are able to address the threats of maritime crime, including drug, human and arms trafficking, and to secure the waters of coastal States.

Head of the Regional Security Division of the ECOWAS Commission, Colonel Abdourahmane Dieng called for additional measures that would provide a range of options and innovative solutions to address all forms of maritime security problems through enhanced cooperation.

He added that the recent UN Security Council Resolution 2634 (2022) explicitly encourages the Gulf of Guinea to structure operations to combat illicit maritime activities and to develop their capacity to protect their maritime domain.

The meeting ended with the adoption of the report by the participants and the following recommendations including those to present the draft Supplementary Act as revised to the ECOWAS Commission as a working draft to ensure its ownership by all its competent services to sensitize management on the objectives that the draft Supplementary Act aims, to sensitize the management on the objectives that the draft Supplementary Act seeks to achieve in securing the ECOWAS maritime domain