Africa-Press – Cape verde. Maritime traffic surveillance center, linked to other countries and taking advantage of the archipelago’s strategic location in the Atlantic Ocean, will be inaugurated today.
The Multinational Maritime Coordination Center for Zone G will be installed in the port of the capital, Praia, and is the result of an agreement signed with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in October 2022.
The Government said, in a statement, that the inauguration signals Cape Verde’s “commitment” “to the principles of regional cooperation and integration, strengthening ties with ECOWAS”.
The center aims to control all international maritime traffic in the so-called Zone G and share information with the other four centers in Africa.
In addition to Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Senegal form part of the center of Zone G, within the scope of ECOWAS.
The lack of vessels and other resources for surveillance and patrolling territorial waters has been an Achilles heel for the Cape Verde authorities, which, due to its nature, as an archipelago, has the majority of its territory at sea.
The Cape Verdean executive has said that he intends to improve the situation and at the end of the year expressed to the European Union (EU) his desire to benefit from forms of assistance, to reinforce maritime surveillance, through the European Peace Support Mechanism.
The matter is part of the EU agenda in Cape Verde for this year, but awaits developments in Brussels.
The center to be opened today, in Praia, was created through the Yaoundé protocol, which defines defense and security relations between the various regions of Africa in partnership with the G7+Friends of the Gulf of Guinea.
The G7+Friends of the Gulf of Guinea group is made up of Germany, Canada, United States of America, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Brazil (observer), South Korea, Denmark, Spain, Norway, Netherlands , Portugal, Switzerland, EU, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol.
Participating in today’s inauguration are the Minister of State and Defense, Janine Lélis, and the ambassador of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Samuel Lamptey.
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