Nigeria, French Navy Collaborate in Exercise NEMO

• France sending two warships

Senator Iroegbu in Abuja

The Nigerian Navy will be collaborating with her French counterpart in exercise aimed at securing the nation’s maritime borders as well as the coastal area encompassing the Gulf of Guinea.

The Director of Information (DINFO), Commodore Christian Ezekobe, in a statement monday, said two French warships HPD DIXMUNDE and FF CODUING, will be leading a French maritime initiative under the a serie tagged: ‘Exercise NEMO 16.5’ with the theme: ‘Maritime Structure on Securitisation’.

Ezekobe said the exercise is geared towards sharpening skills in anti-piracy and anti-illegal fishing.

According to him, the maritime exercise also seeks to strengthen a 2013 agreement between the Economic Community of Central African States and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to fight piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

He said: “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 naval spokesman noted that 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.

He also stated that the exercise NEMO’s activities would be conducted in the country’s waters between September 13 and 16, 2016 and that NNS OKPABANA has been designated to partake in the exercise.