In a recent interview, Véronique Roger-Lacan, ambassador to the fight against maritime piracy for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, declared the urge for an integrated framework to resolve the problem of insecurity off the shores of the Gulf of Guinea. The official also reminded the specific action of France in the domain. The EU member in deed possesses specific tools in order to enhance maritime security in GoG, and remains, with the United States, one of the major actors to support implementation of the final conclusions of the Yaounde Summit of June 2013.
France currently runs the naval operation CORYMBE, which implements: evacuations of national citizens, support to BARKHANE and SANGARIS military operations, and the fight against maritime piracy. French naval forces offer material, legal and institutional assistance as well as training to regional navies. The Marine Nationale also provides ship-owners with military embedded security teams.
Benin navy intervention group at training with the CORYMBE Force
ASECMAR (project of support to the reform of maritime security in GoG) is also an important dimension France’s participation. The project seeks maritime capacity building for the costal states of ECOWAS (Benin, Ghana, Togo, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Nigeria) throughout institutional assistance, training and regional cooperation. ASECMAR has a 1 200 000 € budget and will be implemented until 2015.
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