Angola defends government funding to fight piracy in Guinea Gulf, Great Lakes region

Angola thinks the fight against maritime piracy and terrorism necessarily involves the creation of a strategy for government funding in the Gulf of Guinea and the Great Lakes region, the country's Secretary of State for the External Relations Esmeralda Mendonca said.

The Angolan official made the remark on the sidelines of the presentation ceremony of the recently appointed Gulf of Guinea Commission Deputy Executive Secretary Afonso Eduardo, an Angolan.

Mendonca stressed that if the member states of the region have concerted actions to tackle maritime piracy, they will contribute to the security and development of the region.

"Crime has been growing in this area, endangering the region itself from a national, international and regional point of view. It is in this perspective that Angola, as the headquarters of the Gulf of Guinea in Luanda, attaches great importance to this organization, as the maritime spaces have to be controlled," Mendonca said.

Eduardo said his main objective is to convince member countries to follow the same path, adding that of the 90 percent of the crimes committed in Atlantic ocean, 70 percent occurs in the Gulf of Guinea and is worrying.

"We can't cross our arms because of the pandemic," he said.

The Gulf of Guinea Commission was created by the heads of state of Angola, Nigeria, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, and the Republic of Congo, on July 3, 2001, in Libreville, Gabonese Republic to have a permanent institutional instrument of cooperation at a regional level between the states bordering the Gulf of Guinea to defend their common interests, said Benjamin Maye Mibuy, the Administrative Director of the Gulf of Guinea Commission.