This month (3-20 September 2024), SEACOP organised a follow up of the Maritime Intelligence Unit (MIU) Training of Trainers training held in Abidjan in July 2024.
💡 During the Abidjan ToT, MIU officers of the 8 SEACOP supported countries in West Africa (Benin 🇧🇯 Cabo Verde 🇨🇻 Cote d’Ivoire 🇨🇮 The Gambia 🇬🇲
Ghana 🇬🇭 Senegal 🇸🇳 Sierra Leone 🇸🇱 Togo 🇹🇬) were endowed with tools and techniques for maritime information processing to identify and target suspect vessels involved in trafficking.
The 3-week mentoring was meant to enhance and consolidate the practical skills and capacities in maritime information processing of these new trainers.
Under the leadership of SEACOP’s team, participants applied skills and techniques acquired in the ToT using relevant tools to process maritime information, target potential vessels of interest in their territorial waters and share the information among themselves.
They also worked with colleagues from other regions in interregional cases. “This underscores one of SEACOP’s successes that is, enabling different regions to come together to better fight maritime illicit trafficking,” stated Deputy Regional Coordinator Akizi Akala.
The mentoring also led to some operational activities as several ships targeted were subject to inspection by respective JMCUs highlighting the connection between the two entities (MIU/JMCU). See the news
Several online meeting sessions were held among the actors to brief and debrief their findings.
“As it takes a network to fight a network, a dynamic network of MIU officers was born from this month mentoring as participants have learned to know and trust each other. This will probably lead to a better and effective fight,” continued Akizi Akala, stressing the importance to optimise the autonomy and collaboration of MIUs in West Africa.
