Nigerian, French Navies, others hold exercise NEM
The French Navy, in collaboration with its Nigerian counterpart, and navies of countries in the Gulf of Guinea on Monday commenced a four day exercise to strengthen sub regional capacity to fight piracy.
Two French warships HPD DIXMUNDE and FF CODUING are leading a French maritime initiative under the Exercise NEMO series tagged Exercise NEMO 16.5 with the theme ‘Maritime Structure on Securitisation’.
A statement by the Navy Director of Naval Information, Commodore Chris Ezekobe, said the exercise was geared towards sharpening skills in anti-piracy and anti-illegal fishing.
The Exercise also seeks to strengthen a 2013 agreement between the Economic Community of Central African States and the Economic Community of West African States to fight piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
Exercise NEMO is being conducted in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy as well as navies of Gabon, Cameroun, Benin, Togo and Ghana among other countries in Gulf of Guinea.
The objectives of the Exercise include cooperation in the fight against piracy and illegal fishing in the Gulf as well as testing interoperability between participating navies.
The vessels will carry out several exercises including a simulated attack on an oil tanker which will be tracked by Nigeria’s Maritime Domain Awareness Capability Systems.
Exercise NEMOs activities are being conducted in our waters between 13 and 16 Sep 2016 and NNS OKPABANA is taking part in the exercise.
