The seven speeches at yesterday's opening of the Gulf of Guinea Summit in Yaounde recommended collective action as major solution to insecurity.
The fight against maritime insecurity can only produce palpable results if all hands are put on deck. This is the common denominator that threaded through the seven speeches presented at the opening ceremony on Maritime Safety and Security in the Gulf of Guinea at the Yaounde Conference Centre yesterday.
The clarion call for joint action was a clear translation of the common feeling that cuts across all the countries of the Gulf of Guinea. President Paul Biya’s keynote address underscored the danger hanging over this very important region. « Maritime piracy for our countries is a serious threat to peace and stability. It is a drawback to development and to the wellbeing of our people”, he said. The Head of State’s position was saluted by all other speakers. They stated the necessity to react with firmness to prevent the maritime space from witnessing a decline in the influx of goods and to refrain from compromising the development of the countries therein.
The ocean, he said, is not only an extended mass of water, but also a source of energy and a means of transport of goods. “It is a reservoir for mineral, plant and animal resources”, he said. For all these reasons, President Paul Biya called on other nations and the international community not to abandon the maritime space to individuals and lawless organisations that have as objective to transform it into areas of predators. “We will not allow these pirates operate in our waters, putting travellers in danger,” he said.
To the Representative of the President of the African Union Commission, the Yaounde Summit is a milestone in the implementation of the decisions taken at the 50th Anniversary of the OAU/AU in application of the recommendation of the UN Security Council of February, 2012. The said recommendation called on ECCAS, ECOWAS and the GGC to organise a summit of Heads of State in a bid to draw up a collective action plan to contain piracy and armed attacks. In the same vein, the Representative of the UN Secretariat General, Abou Musa, saluted the achievement and hailed the key role played by President Yayi Boni in raising international concern. The international community, he said, has the responsibility to stop the situation from escalating.
The Chairman of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS), President Alassane Dramane Outtara, was particularly thankful for the resolutions that emerged from the Cotonou meeting, describing the Yaounde Summit at the final commitment of member countries. This idea was in other words corroborated by President Idriss Deby Ithno of Chad, Chairman of the Economic Commission of Central African States (ECCAS). Maritime security does not only concern countries in the Gulf of Guinea, but countries like Chad that depend on it for its trade, he said.
