NIGERIA: United States partners with African states to bolster security in the Gulf of Guinea

Record ID: 236029

  • Title: NIGERIA: United States partners with African states to bolster security in the Gulf of Guinea
  • Date: 26th March 2009
  • Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (MARCH 25, 2009) (REUTERS) WARSHIP USS NASHVILLE US MARINE FLAG LOGO OF USS NASHVILLE NIGERIA AND FOREIGN NAVY PERSONNEL RESTING THE COMMODORE, CAPTAIN CINDY THEBAUD TALKING TO COLLEAGUES NIGERIAN NAVAL OFFICER (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAPTAIN CINDY THEBAUD, USS COMMODORE, SAYING: "Like in many other areas in the world, there area number of challenges in the maritime sector throughout the sub-region. Whether it is illegal fishing which could impact in terms of food availability for may people who depend it for its protein and as an economic source for many people in the country. The challenges of illegal migration, trafficking of persons, and the increase seen recently in the drug trafficking into West and Central Africa. Dealing with challenges of sea robbery and piracy and other maritime crimes." US FLAG
  • Embargoed: 10th April 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA969LEX3J6MQWSF7G79PDJHSDT
  • Story Text: The US has partnered with African states to bolster security in the Gulf of Guinea rife with oil theft, drug running and human trafficking.
    The U.S. navy is carrying out joint training with partners from around Africa's Gulf of Guinea to help boost maritime security in a region plagued by piracy, drug smuggling and attacks on oil installations.
    The USS Nashville, a 17,000-tonne warship with around 420 crew, is travelling to five ports around West and Central Africa where it is hosting training courses from oil platform protection to fire-fighting and maritime law.
    Western and other nations have sent warships to fight pirates threatening shipping off the Horn of Africa but gunmen in fast launches have also been preying on oil and fishing boats and even coastal towns on the other side of the continent.
    Nigerian waters ranked second in the world last year after Somalia for incidents of piracy, eclipsing even Indonesia and the Malacca Straits, where increased surveillance has bolstered security, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
    Many African navies lack the resources to stop increasingly bold attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, a region grouping Africa's main suppliers of crude oil to the West and China.
    "Like many other areas of the world, there are a number of challenges in the maritime sector throughout the sub-region," the USS Nashville's commodore, Captain Cindy Thebaud, said, adding "Whether it's illegal fishing, ... illegal migration, the increase we have seen in the past few years in drug trafficking into West and Central Africa ... one of the exacerbating factors is the resource challenges many countries in the region face."
    Seaborne raids in the region long focused on Nigeria's Niger Delta, where militants are pushing demands for a greater share of oil revenues. But recent attacks have crossed borders, making naval co-operation between neighbouring countries vital.
    Equatorial Guinea's government blamed Nigerian militants for an armed attack on its island capital Malabo last month while suspected Nigerian pirates kidnapped a Ukrainian and three Filipinos seized from an oil vessel off Cameroon 10 days ago.
    The USS Nashville is visiting ports in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon as part of "Africa Partnership Station" (APS), meant to help strengthen co-operation between navies policing West and Central Africa's coastline.
    "There is a certain sense of establishing a set of common knowledge that they can employ, not just here but in the general region and anything that facilitated that jointness and the ability to do combined operations within the host nations is much appreciated," said Lieutenant-Colonel Carl Friedrich of the U.S. Marine Corps, whose 40-strong team is teaching courses including hand-to-hand combat and intelligence gathering.
    "Training in Nigeria is split into two, we've got maritime training and expeditionary. With the maritime we have training on oil platform protection, fisheries protection, shipload medical, fire fighting, dive medicine. So long range to pretty much to carter with what the Nigerian navy ask for," said Lieutenant Kemi Elebute, a Nigerian in the US navy.
    More than 200 members of Nigeria's navy and army are receiving training in subjects including oil rig protection, fire-fighting and fisheries protection. Spanish and Italian marines are among other nationalities contributing expertise.
    "I have not known of a navy program that has brought a lot of navy together like this, especially in Africa. This also accorded us an opportunity to interact, not just in the work aspect but at a personal level," said Nigerian navy Commander Enoch Bello.
    Attacks on oil installations in the creeks of the Niger Delta, one of the world's largest wetlands, have cut Nigeria's oil output by more than fifth over the past three years.
    The militants have also struck in deep water, attacking Royal Dutch Shell's 3.6 billion U.S. dollar offshore Bonga oilfield last June and forcing the plant, which has a nameplate capacity of 220,000 barrels per day, to shut down.
    The Italian navy are teaching the course on oil platform protection meant to help stem such strikes.
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