90% reduction in maritime piracy: Europe will remain Africa’s best ally – EU Ambassador to Ghana

The Ambassador of the European Union to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly, has intimated that so far as the longstanding reliable relationship with Africa continues, Europe will offer ample support for the continent’s development goals.

He made this pronouncement during an interaction with Eye on Port’s Kennedy Mornah, on Accra-Based Metro TV.

Discussing the rapid decrease in piracy incidents along the Gulf of Guinea, the Ambassador says Europe’s forces have enjoyed good cooperation with the regional navies and authorities towards overturning the spate of piracy and crew kidnappings in the West and Central Africa Region.

He said despite the 90% reduction in incidents in the region, Europe will not rest on its oars and will continue to collaborate with regional forces to nip the canker of piracy in the bud. This he said, explains why the naval vessels from Italy, Portugal, France, and India visited the Port of Tema for a maritime exercise last week.

“The purpose of the exercise was to reinforce and improve interoperability to manoeuvre together and communicate better which is the philosophy of the European Union. When the Italian navy ship is running out of fuel, for example, another sister vessel can help refuel and come to its aid. These processes are not very easy, so this exercise was about making processes quick and effective.”

“It is also important for us to bear in mind that, it is not going away and we need to keep mobilized and vigilant because at any given point in time, this can worsen,” he added.

His Excellency, the Ambassador of the EU to Ghana indicated that another reason for the brief maritime exercise was to publicly demonstrate some of the assets that have been deployed in Gulf of Guinea waters in the past few years.

He however clarified that the naval assets will continue to be deployed in alignment with the strategies and priorities of ECOWAS and the regional authorities themselves under the Yaoundé Architecture.

He said the EU has a proven track record, with the successes chalked in its Operation Atalanta in Somalia during the period when the Horn of Africa was the global maritime piracy hotspot.

Mr. Razaaly said the European Union is cognisant of the fact that the issue of piracy has to be tackled from a comprehensive approach, “because in the end, the pirates are venturing into piracy because there are other opportunities that they don’t have.”

He said the insecurity issues should be approached from an integrated perspective considering the land and sea and the root causes that birth these criminal activities.

According to the EU Ambassador to Ghana, the Union aims to equip African human resources with capacity building, which is an important component of their support, just like most of their aid programs. They do not simply intend to deploy forces through their Coordinated Maritime Presence program.

He stated that because of the potential economic harm an unsafe maritime space could create, Europeans, like their trusted allies, will keep working to preserve and defend the maritime trade routes in Africa.