The French government in collaboration with the United States of America government has set up a project dubbed Gulf of Guinea Maritime Security Sector Reform Support (ASECMAR) to help fight maritime crimes in West Africa.
The project is expected to train Maritime administrators on the laws of the sea and to share information on maritime crime in the sub region.
[contextly_sidebar id=”cOBiH4RiMawKeFJuhcLZUbfAMMk9zXyh”]The ASECMAR project is funded by the French government and anchored by the directorate of security and defence under the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The project since its establishment in 2013 has trained six hundred and twelve persons from eleven countries.
The beneficiary countries of the project are personal from Angola, Benin, Cameron, Congo Braille, Cote D’ Ivoice, Gabon, Ghana Guinea Conakry, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria.
The rest are Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Saotome and Togo.
Speaking at a workshop to share information on the laws governing the sea and to establish expertise and excellence training segment in Maritime States Action (MSA) at the Regional Training Centre in Accra; The French Ambassador to Ghana to, Mr F. Clavier said maritime issues in the world is of major concern to the French government.
He said piracy, maritime trafficking sea pollution and illicit fishing are unacceptable for peace.
And to stop this from happening is to enact laws that will punish the perpetrators of maritime crimes.
He explained the project will draw specific mechanisms that will mobilise coastal states of West Africa to deal with these issues.
Mr. Clavier also said the project seeks to help these countries to learn and share concrete examples especially the examples of Somalia in the fight of piracy.
On his part, the United States Ambassador to Ghana, Gene A. Cretz urged leaders in the West African sub region to allocate scare resources to fight maritime crime.
He said it about time these African leaders must show strong commitment towards the fight against human trafficking, drug and money laundering in the sub region.
He said maritime crime is a global crime that must be tackled head on to make the sub region a peaceful place to live in.
The US Ambassador called on members to immediately allocate funds towards the fight against maritime crime.