Maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea: FIIAPP launches EU project with technical support from the Spanish Navy

Improve the maritime situational awareness and capabilities of the Cameroonian and Ghanaian navies to patrol the high seas and strengthen maritime security and the prosecution of illegal activities, protecting ships, coastal populations and their livelihoods. This is the objective of the project funded by the European Union and implemented by FIIAPP.

Working directly with Cameroon and Ghana will benefit the 19 states that make up the Yaoundé Architecture (a regional consultation mechanism created in 2013 to coordinate the fight against illegal activities in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea).

The €21 million, 36-month project has been approved through an assistance measure under the umbrella of the European Peace Facility. This financial instrument of the European Union was created in 2021 on an extra-budgetary basis and is part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). On that basis, the EU Council allocated this project to FIIAPP (CFSP Decision 2023/2682) in November 2023 and endowed the project with €21 million.

FIIAPP has already worked with the Spanish Ministry of Defence to design the team and work plan and is about to start its implementation phase, which will run until August 2027.

Protecting fisheries and the economy

The work plan is structured in two components:

-Provide an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) system through an airborne asset that will be deployed in the area for around 12 months, compiling images of movements in the Gulf of Guinea. This information will feed into the YARIS maritime information system, funded by EU Member States.

-Improving the material capacities of the maritime security authorities of two key countries in the region: Cameroon and Ghana. To this end, a variety of equipment will be procured, including a patrol boat, diving equipment and outboard engines, among others.

This assistance measure reinforces the EU’s commitment to the development of West and Central Africa by protecting the region’s rich marine environment. Around 80 per cent of the Gulf of Guinea countries’ exports are carried out by sea. Legal fisheries and their protection are key to the local economy and food security in the region.