By Lt. Cmdr. Kent Laborde, Saharan Express Public Affairs
DAKAR, Senegal (NNS) -- Military and civilian leadership met
for the second annual interagency meeting during Exercise Saharan Express 2014,
March 11.
The objective of the meeting was to bring together the
national agencies in Senegal responsible for maritime security in order to gain
their expertise and discuss best practices on topics such as illegal fishing,
drug trafficking and weapons smuggling.
The Saharan Express 2014 Exercise Director U.S. Navy Capt.
John Tokarewich joined with the Chief of Senegalese Naval Staff Rear Adm.
Cheikh Bara Cissokho in hosting the Senegal Maritime Police, Senegal National
Policy, Dakar Port Authority, Senegal Maritime Affairs National Agency, Senegal
Maritime Security and Safety Coordination Agency, the Sub-Regional Fisheries
Commission, the Maritime Traffic Information Sharing Center in Ghana, and the
World Wildlife Fund at Senegalese Naval Headquarters in Dakar.
"Agencies need to share intelligence and work
together," said Cissokho. "Bad actors at sea have knowledge and
navigational skills. How can we confront these threats and save lives?
Improving governance between agencies is just as important as physical
confrontation at sea."
This is the second year that the event has been held in
conjunction with Exercise Saharan Express, a multilateral naval exercise that
brings together 13 maritime nations to improve communications between regional
operations centers, increase theater maritime domain awareness and practice
boarding vessels at sea.
"Providing maritime security is an enormous job that is
only possible through the capabilities and teamwork that we are building among
the many Navies participating in Saharan Express," said Tokarewich.
"Further, we must also have your agencies as part of the team. It is
critical for all of us to work hand-in-hand in order to counter the serious
problems that all nations share, such as trafficking of people and illegal
material, narcotics trade, and illegal fishing."
The exercise includes scenarios where naval ships simulate
vessels at sea conducting either illegal fishing or illicit trafficking. The
exercise helps to strengthen capabilities of the regional partners and create
greater awareness of activities in adjacent waters so that they can maintain
maritime security.
This has significant economic and security impacts at local,
national and regional scales. Outreach to partner governmental and
non-governmental organizations helps to strengthen the coordination between all
players in the maritime domain.
Allassane Dieng represented the Sub-Regional Fisheries
Commission, and stressed the importance of preventing illegal, unregulated and
unreported (IUU) fishing for the stability of the regional economy.
"Fisheries employs around 600,000 people in Senegal, or
about 17 percent of the population," said Dieng. "About 75 percent of
our animal protein comes from fish, and yet IUU fishing represents about one
third of the fish catch in Senegal."
U.S. and Senegalese organizers were happy to see results of
the collaboration.
"This event underlines the importance of national
cooperation between maritime agencies, which is an important goal for Saharan
Express," said Kristy McLean, maritime outreach program manager for Naval
Forces Africa and one of the organizers. "As in the United States, a
whole-of-government approach is needed to ensure maritime security and protect
marine resources."
The African contingency agreed that the synchronization of
partner nations and the ability to work together will help strengthen maritime
operations and efforts in the area.
"The discussion identified a number of areas of common
interest between the agencies that will help us build better cooperation
between the maritime agencies in Senegal," said Senegalese Navy Cmdr.
Oumar Wade, another organizer.
Saharan Express is an annual international maritime security
cooperation exercise designed to improve maritime safety and security in West
Africa.
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