Seychelles to host new centre to respond to maritime threats in the region |21 October 2016

A Regional Maritime Centre for Operational Coordination (RMCOC) is being set up in Seychelles as a mechanism to respond to all maritime threats in the Western Indian Ocean.

The centre is being set up by the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC-APU) and is being hosted by Seychelles.

It is aimed at boosting the image of Seychelles as a champion of maritime security and is a major asset to the Blue economy concept which the country is promoting.

This was announced by the director of the APU, Ralph Agrippine, in an interview on Wednesday.

Mr Agrippine was in Lome, Togo, recently where he was a member of the Seychelles delegation attending the African Union Extraordinary summit on Maritime Security and Safety and Development. The summit ended with the signing of the Lome Charter, which has as objective establishing a roadmap on Maritime Security in Africa, in order to put in place an African strategy for the protection of its seas and oceans, to provide peace, security and stability, and to make African maritime space the key driver for sustainable economic development. The recent meeting in Lome was expected to build on the results of previous summits held in Yaoundé (June 2013) and Seychelles (February 2015).

Topics of discussions included those related to maritime insecurity marked by acts of assault, piracy, armed robbery, illicit trafficking at sea, illegal fishing, preservation of marine life, the sea as a factor for development, and regional and international cooperation to safeguard maritime safety.

It was also aimed at finding appropriate means to curb criminal acts that are a serious breach to peace, security and the navigation of the African seas, especially in the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea.

To put into context the ‘raison d’être’ for a  RMCOC, Mr Agrippine explained why such an initiative.

He said during this conference one of the initiatives agreed upon was in order to promote maritime security in Africa, there was a need to set up such a centre in Seychelles. And during the piracy era in the Indian Ocean around 2008/2009, Seychelles was among the many countries like independent deployers such as India, China, Russia and international organisations like NATO, EU that responded against such activity. And one of those responses was the European Union’s MASE Programme, Regional Maritime Security in the Eastern and Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Region as they needed a comprehensive response to piracy.

The programme is being implemented by all the countries of the mentioned region – from Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and the five islands of the Indian Ocean. It has got five dimensions – social, investigative, financial, maritime and legal.

Mr Agrippine mentioned piracy as an example where they have to create alternatives so that Somalis do not end up in it. The legal dimension is catch the pirates, prosecute them and if found guilty, charge them. The financial dimension is to have a system in place to detect the circuit they use to gain asset and to then counter money laundering. The maritime dimension is how to respond to that and the investigative one is how to collect intelligence data. Therefore the setting up of the RMCOC is the result of the maritime dimension.

“The centre is being based in Seychelles for many reasons, because we are located in the middle of the western Indian Ocean region and we have experience. We will response to any maritime threat. A maritime threat is any event happening at sea that put at risk the lives of people or the integrity of vessels,” said Mr Agrippine.

Such events can range from piracy, armed robbery, trafficking in person, drug trafficking, or could be a cyclone, a tsunami, oil spills etc…

“Not all these events are crimes. But if all these events were to happen, this centre will coordinate the response to counter them,” he said.

Explaining how the centre will function, Mr Agrippine said a station based in Madagascar for example collects the intelligence or information then contact the centre in Seychelles stating what they need to undertake such an operation, like the type of boat or aircraft etc… The centre in Seychelles will have to inform them where the various equipment needed are available, let’s say the boat in Tanzania, the aircraft in Mauritius etc..

“Together they will mount an operation and deal with that situation. So basically the centre in Seychelles will coordinate assets from the region to counter any threat at sea,” he said.

He remarked the groundwork has been done, the first director has been identified and is a Seychellois, staff are Seychellois and each country will nominate an international liaison official and necessary equipment detected. The centre is to be operational next year.

Regarding the positive effect of such a centre on the Blue economy, Mr Agrippine said the Blue economy is based on the perspective of the ocean. And to have such an economy based on peace and stability, it needs security.

“So maritime security is an essential component of the Blue economy. Because the fishermen will not be able to go out and fish if there is piracy. So the Blue economy is for those who are to exploit the resources of the sea in a sustainable way and not for criminals. And that the area is not at risk of any maritime threats,” he said.