The 9th Symposium of Chiefs of Naval Staff and Coast Guard Commanders of the Gulf of Guinea opened this Tuesday in Dakar, bringing together more than 27 countries for three days of discussions dedicated to maritime security. In launching the event, the Senegalese Minister of the Armed Forces, General Birame Diop, called for strengthened cooperation between the Gulf of Guinea countries and nations of the Atlantic region, in the face of threats that are now "transnational."

 

Indeed, according to RTS, the minister emphasized the evolving nature of risks in the Gulf of Guinea, which no longer faces only piracy. These include illicit trafficking, IUU fishing, irregular migration, marine pollution, and the effects of climate change.

“No state can navigate alone,” General Birame Diop emphasized, noting that criminal organizations and illegal fishing networks now operate throughout the Atlantic basin. The international cocaine trade, described as a “criminal industry” linking the Americas, Europe, and Africa, exemplifies this globalization. Limiting the discussion to the Gulf of Guinea alone, he argued, would be to “obscure the roots and catalysts” of these threats.

 

Organised from November 17 to 19 by the Senegalese Navy, the symposium brings together delegations from three continents around the theme "Cooperation between the Gulf of Guinea and the nations of the Atlantic space: developing synergies for security and prosperity".

The Senegalese Minister of the Armed Forces recalled that this meeting is part of the continuity of the Yaoundé Declaration of 2013, the matrix of the West African Maritime Security Architecture, which has now entered "a new phase of maturation" requiring a joint assessment of progress and an adaptation to emerging challenges.