The European Union (EU) has donated security hardware including 30 rigid-hull inflatable boats and forensic equipment to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to tackle maritime crime and other security challenges in West Africa.
The donation was announced at a high-level maritime security seminar convened by ECOWAS in Abuja, on Monday.
The equipment, estimated at €5 million, is expected to help security agencies in Nigeria and 11 other coastal ECOWAS states in combating crime and criminality.
The other beneficiaries of the donation include Benin, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo.
The Head of ECOWAS’ Regional Security Division, Col. Abdourahmane Dieng, noted that maritime insecurity had long been one of the most persistent and intractable threats to maritime communities and economic prosperity in West Africa.
He said, “For this reason, ECOWAS, in conjunction with the Economic Community of Central African States formulated the Yaoundé Code of Conduct as a foundation for broad-based regional maritime security along the entire Gulf of Guinea.
“Cognisant of this problem and its ramifications well beyond West Africa, ECOWAS launched its Integrated Maritime Strategy in 2014 with parameters for the development of the blue economy premised upon a coherent security framework.”