IMO Supporting Anti-Piracy Efforts Off Africa

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

26 November 2015

Maritime law-enforcement officers from countries bordering the western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden were trained recently to deal with organized transnational crimes at sea.

Piracy, robbery, drug trafficking, marine terrorism, weapons' smuggling, and human trafficking were covered during the IMO-sponsored, two-week course at the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operations Training Centre (NMIOTC) in Souda Bay, Crete, Greece, which ran from November 16-27.

The practical and theoretical course was intended to help develop skills in: countering maritime crimes; operational planning; investigating crimes at sea; interviewing suspects; and collecting, handling, and preserving evidence at sea. Further practical training will be provided in the region during Exercise Cutlass Express, which is to run between January-February 2016.

Participants include maritime law-enforcement officers and prosecutors from Comoros, Djibouti, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Somalia, and the United Republic of Tanzania.

TAGS: marine | Djibouti | India | Saudi Arabia | training | law | Comoros | Madagascar | Mozambique | Somalia | enforcement | Greece | Jordan | Kenya | Seychelles | Tanzania