Maritime Crime Control Officers to benefit from new capacity development project

Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Center (KAIPTC) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and funding from the Government of Japan have commenced a one-year project to develop the technical capacity of maritime crime control officials in Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

The new project titled “Maritime Security Capacity Development for Safety and Security in The Gulf of Guinea”, is to promote effective implementation of relevant regional and international maritime protocols through research and capacity development, in order to control maritime crime including piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

The Japan Ambassador to Ghana, Himeno Tsutomu said the idea and objective of the project fit in well with the New Approach for Peace and Stability in Africa (NAPSA).

“Piracy attacks and other crimes such as robbery and kidnapping in countries along the Gulf of Guinea make the region’s maritime route unsafe and this requires technical capacity strengthening of maritime officials to help improve security in the region,” Himeno Tsutomu added.

The project is also designed with new courses to train about 90 personnel of national and regional maritime agencies including customs, marine and coastguard agencies, police, gendarmerie, national navies and marine observation centers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

“The courses will integrate regional and international best practices, using legal and policy documents including the African Union’s 2013 Yaoundé Code of Conduct, which is seeking to help curb the incidence of maritime crimes in Africa,”

The Acting Resident Representative of UNDP in Ghana, Gita Welch indicated that the Maritime security remained critical for economic activity and development, adding that, the rate of insecurity along the Gulf of Guinea requires urgent actions to combat piracy and other threats.

According to the 2019 report of the International Maritime Bureau, the region accounts for 86 and 82 percent of crew taken hostage and  kidnappings globally despite drop in overall global numbers.

She noted that the continuous partnership with the other parties would help improve the skills, inter-agency working relations and cooperation among the security forces to fight criminality”.

KAIPTC Commandant, Major General Francis Ofori, is also hopeful the training underpinned by research would support the efforts in sharing information and building capacity of stakeholders to reduce insecurity within the maritime domain.

“At KAIPTC, it is our hope that the training which is underpinned by research will support efforts at sharing information and building capacity of stakeholders to reduce insecurity within our maritime domain” he added.

The maritime security capacity development project will strengthen the expertise of maritime officials and the research findings will inform policy directions on tackling maritime criminality in countries along the Gulf of Guinea.

Source: Eric Nii Sackey || ghananewsonline.com.gh