All efforts needed to tackle Gulf of Guinea maritime threats— President Akufo-Addo Urges
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called for an enhanced cooperation among member countries of the Gulf of Guinea to address the growing treats and insecurity in the bloc’s maritime environment.
Speaking about the criminality in the maritime space of the Gulf of Guinea, President Akufo-Addo said the menace posed a threat to the security and economic development of the region.
He urged countries in the geopolitical space of the region to put up a united front to curtail and eradicate the menace.
President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday made the call at the opening of the Third Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC) in Accra.
The high-level meeting, convened by President Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo as Chairman of the Assembly to discuss strategies for strengthening peace and security in the fight against maritimerelated crimes in the GGC region. The session was also arranged for the swearing-in of the members of the new Executive Secretariat of the Commission.
President Akufo-Addo emphasised the need for collaboration and cooperation amongst the states of the Gulf of Guinea region describing it as “crucial” because of the interconnectivity of maritime activities.
“For us to have an effective and well-organised defence of the Gulf of Guinea Region, the countries in the Gulf of Guinea must be encouraged so that collectively, we can make a significant difference in maintaining maritime peace and security in the Gulf of Guinea region.”
President Akufo-Addo maintained that through a well-coordinated collaboration and cooperation on matters of common interest among the members of the region, illegal activities at sea could be greatly reduce.
“Working together will enable us to build a safe, secure and prosperous Gulf of Guinea region for sustainable development,” he said.
The Gulf of Guinea region has become a global hotspot for incidents of piracy, oil bunkering, robbery at sea, hostage-taking, human and drug trafficking, terrorism and corruption, illegal unregulated and unreported fishing, arms trafficking, pollution of the environment and smuggling.
The primary responsibility for fighting that threat lay with the countries of the region, who have to garner substantial political will at the subregional and regional levels to confront the threat.
Before the meeting went into a closed-door session, President Akufo-Addo indicated the deliberations would dwell on the collective interest of enlarging the membership of the Gulf of Guinea Commission to have all coastal states in West and Central Africa represented on the international body.
He stressed that there was the need to amend the 2001 treaty that established the Commission to reflect new developments in the Gulf of Guinea.
“These are the item for the agenda in closed-door sessions in order to come up with strategies to win the fight against maritimerelated crimes in the region such as piracy, illegal unreported fishing, arms trafficking, pollution of the environment, smuggling, fuel and crude oil theft.
“We shall continue to work to address this maritime security issues to help curtail and eradicate the menace caused by this criminality in the region so as to build a safe, secure and prosperous Gulf of Guinea region for the sustainable development of our people,” he said.
Also on the agenda of the meeting are the proposal for the possible expansion of the members of the commission to include all the 19 coastal states of the geopolitical Gulf of Guinea for the effective collaboration of Navies, Coast Guard and other relevant maritime agencies in the geopolitical space of the Gulf of Guinea.