Collaborate to protect maritime borders - Veep
Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur has called on security chiefs in the West African sub-region to forge closer collaboration to effectively protect the maritime borders.
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Opening the Coastal and Maritime Surveillance Conference and Exhibition in Accra Thursday, the Vice-President quoted figures that indicated that an excess of $2 billion was lost in the sub-region annually as a result of insecurity along the maritime borders.
He said the Gulf of Guinea was associated with security concerns, while the resource-rich areas on the continent were being undermined by domestic, regional and international threats.
Mr Amissah-Arthur drew attention to the growing crime and insecurity along the maritime borders which, he said, had brought about adverse political consequences on the continent.
”As we develop maritime and regional security, it is important to continue to seek new solutions to effectively deal with this threat,” he urged.
He expressed confidence that the conference would proffer some solutions to the security situation, as delegates, including officers and men of the Ghana Navy and the Ghana Air Force.
Chief of Naval Staff
Earlier in his welcoming statement, the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Geoffrey M. Biekro, said the rising insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea had caught the attention of the international community, for which reason various countries and regional bodies in West Africa had initiated interventions to address the issue.
The security chief stressed the need for his colleagues to continue to seek new ways and technologies to counter those threats, as the challenges confronting the region were far beyond national boundaries.
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The conference
The four-day conference is on the theme, “Delivering Total Surveillance to African Maritime Domains”.
It is being attended by Naval officers, government and corporate officials and military personnel.
The Chief Executive Officer of Parmount Group, the lead sponsor of the conference, Mr James Fisher, in a chat with the Daily Graphic, said piracy, as well as illegal fishing off the West African coastline, had expanded, costing the shipping and offshore industry more than $1 billion every year.
That, he said, called for African navies to join forces and restructure their strategies to include the modernisation and development of multi-purpose vessels for high- risk zones.
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