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| A French Navy helicopter chases a boat carrying suspected Somali pirates as part of an anti-piracy naval mission on May 3, 2009 (AFP Photo/Pierre Verdy) |
Lome (AFP)
- African leaders on Saturday signed a deal to boost security off the
continent's economically crucial coasts, hoping to shore up development by
tackling maritime crimes like piracy and smuggling.
Congolese
President Denis Sassou Nguesso hailed the African Union agreement as
"historic", while Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said it showed
Africa's ability to put together a continent-wide strategy.
Sassou
Nguesso said 43 nations had adopted the binding agreement -- which will see
countries pay into a special fund for maritime security -- at a summit in
Togo's capital Lome.
The deal is
designed to improve information-sharing between African nations, a weakness
that pirates and smugglers have benefited from in the past, slipping between
territorial waters with little trouble.
The talks
drew 18 heads of state -- an unusually high figure for an AU meeting of this
kind, signalling the importance that governments have placed on the need to cut
piracy and other crime in Africa's waters.
As he
opened the summit, Chad's President Idriss Deby, the current AU chief, noted
that some 90 percent of Africa's imports and exports are transported by sea,
making maritime security key to the continent's economic future.
Of the AU's
54 member states, 38 have coastlines.
Deby said
the charter would "allow the promotion of commerce and the exploitation of
the huge potential of the maritime sector, as well as the creation of wealth
and jobs in several industries".
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Congolese
President Denis Sassou Nguesso hailed the African Union agreement
to boost
security off the continent's coast as "historic" (AFP Photo/Marco
Longari)
|
It would also
"mark a decisive new step in the push to preserve the maritime
environment", he added.
The deal
will create new national and regional institutions to improve security in
African waters, while the signatories pledged a string of measures to protect
the maritime environment and fight trafficking in drugs, arms and people.
But Timothy
Walker, a maritime security researcher at the Institute for Security Studies
(ISS), said the deal would allow countries to withhold information from each
other if they judge this to be in the interests of national security.
"It's
a big step but it can not be the final step. There is still a lot of work to
do," Walker told AFP.
Piracy in
focus
"African
leaders have started to realise that the maritime domain is a source of
economic opportunity for the future," Walker added.
Togo's
Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told AFP ahead of the summit that there was a
clear need for African countries to work together to combat an upsurge in
piracy in order to make full use of the continent's maritime resources.
Piracy,
smuggling and other crimes at sea have cost the African maritime sector
hundreds of billions of dollars in recent decades, according to the AU.
Large-scale
illegal fishing also helps drive piracy as it depletes stocks, reducing the
legitimate economic activities of coastal communities.
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Suspected
pirates keep their hands in the air as directed by a patrol from the
guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf, in the Gulf of Aden (AFP Photo/
Jason R.
Zalasky)
|
In West
Africa alone, the AU estimates that illicit fishing causes losses of 170
billion CFA francs ($285 million, 260 million euros) every year.
World
piracy has been on the decline since 2012 after international naval patrols
were launched off East Africa in response to violent attacks by mostly
Somali-based pirates.
But the
focus of concern has shifted to the Gulf of Guinea, where a new class of
pirates -- mostly offshoots of militant groups from the Niger Delta -- have
become active.
At least 27
attempted or successful hijackings and kidnappings at sea have been recorded
off west Africa since April, according to the International Maritime
Organization, compared to just two off east Africa.
The 17
countries lining the Gulf of Guinea have poor maritime surveillance capacities
and have been trying for several years to boost cooperation to clamp down on
piracy.
The deal
will need to be ratified by at least 15 countries before it comes into force,
and Barthelemy Blede, an ISS maritime researcher in Ivory Coast, said it
remained to be seen whether there was "real will" to make the deal a
reality.
"It's
a historic act, but it's one thing to adopt a text and sign it, and another
thing to ratify it," he told AFP.
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