YARIS and TESS presented to partners in the Gulf of Guinea
In the last three months, GoGIN has actively worked to achieve its objectives, in spite of the COVID-19 crisis. Although some capacity building activities in the field have been postponed for safety reasons, the development of the YARIS and TESS platforms continues steadily, and partners and stakeholders are constantly informed on the timeline for the delivery of the two systems. A formal presentation of the tools should have taken place in Lisbon in March, but the GoGIN team quickly reacted to the current situation, organising a fruitful videoconference on 19 March, with representatives of ECOWAS, ECCAS, ICC, CRESMAO and CRESMAC. For more information on the meeting, click here.
Support to international operations, MDA course and workshop on training and education
Capacity building activities in the Gulf of Guinea are one of the pillars around which GoGIN is anchored. Before temporarily suspending the training following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team has actively provided support to the different partners in the field, among which through the provision of technical advice during the implementation of Operation “Sardinelle”, an operation organised by the EU PESCAO programme at the end of February 2020 on the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The operation received participation from Senegal, th Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mauritania.
In the last few months, GoGIN has also continued showcasing its role as strong supporter of the Yaoundé Architecture. From 24 to 28 February, the team organised a training activity on maritime domain awareness (MDA) in collaboration with the multinational coordination centre of the zone D (MMCC zone D). Thanks to these courses and practical exercises, the trainees have learnt to address factors and elements affecting the security of the maritime domain, both at national and zone level.
Finally, between 25 and 28 February, GoGIN participated in the workshop “Building a sustainable regional training capacity for maritime law enforcement”, co-organised in Accra by Interpol, the UNODC, and the US State Department.
YARIS and TESS
Despite the delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, predominantly the delivery of infrastructure and limitations on the training activities, the development of the systems is on track and the delivery of the final fully functional versions is expected during the summer, according to the original plan. The GoGIN team is also in constant discussion with different partners to evaluate the possibility of integration of their maritime data within YARIS, such as SeaVision, the US web-based maritime situational awareness tool. Moreover, GoGIN has strengthened its dialogue with Guinea Conakry to evaluate the possibility of integrating their AIS and Radar data into the system, for which initial tests have showed successful results.
Dakar African Maritime Security Forum
Both GoGIN and WeCAPS had the great opportunity to be one of the partners present during the Africa Maritime Security Forum in Dakar at the end of January, organised to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Senegal Navy. High level speakers and more than 300 participants attended the event, which is to be considered a major opportunity for the project to illustrate its activities, results, achievements and strategy to several partners in the Gulf of Guinea.
