A CODE of Conduct on the prevention and suppression of West and Central African piracy and illicit maritime activity was signed by 22 states last week in Yaounde, Cameroon.
The signing was attended by 13 heads of state, reported London's Tanker Operator, adding that it brought together Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe and Togo.
"Maritime development is an essential component of African development and maritime zone security is important," said Koji Sekimizu, secretary general of the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO), noting that the code incorporated many elements of the Djibouti Code of Conduct signed by 20 states in the western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden area.
In the West African version, there is included a Memorandum of Understanding on the integrated coastguard function network in West and Central Africa, which was developed in 2008 by IMO and the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA).
Mr Sekimizu also called on developed nations to provide money to finance the implementation of IMO projects for maritime security for western and central Africa.
The money will go to expanding United Nations agency activities and "to develop safe, secure and sustainable development of the African maritime sector".
The code, modelled on one adopted by East African and Arab Peninsula nations in 2009 to fight piracy in the Indian Ocean, would ask governments to arrest and prosecute suspected pirates, seize any vessels believed to have been used in acts of piracy and increase regional cooperation.
IMO&EU NEWS
03 July 2013 - 19:11
22 West, Central African states sign UN piracy code, modelled on Djibouti's
A CODE of Conduct on the prevention and suppression of West and Central African piracy and illicit maritime activity was signed by 22 states last week.
IMO&EU NEWS
03 July 2013 - 19:11
22 West, Central African states sign UN piracy code, modelled on Djibouti's
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