France and Nigeria hold joint naval exercises in Gulf of Guinea
France has formed a naval partnership with Nigeria to improve maritime security and combat piracy and trafficking in the Gulf of Guinea. The countries have launched a four-month mission led by the French carrier Mistral, Africanews reported on Thursday.
According to the news outlet, a fleet of five Nigerian naval ships is working alongside the French vessel.
Earlier this month, the Nigerian Navy announced that the French naval vessel Mistral had visited the port in Lagos, the West African country's largest city, on the Gulf of Guinea. The ship was there to take part in the "Grand African [Navy Exercise for Maritime Operations] NEMO and Exercise Crocodile Lift, scheduled for October 9–15, 2023," the Nigerian Navy confirmed in a brief statement.
Relations between Paris and its former African colonies have faltered in recent years, with the country increasingly losing influence throughout the Sahel region, where its military is deployed to fight Islamist insurgencies. The military governments in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have all cut military ties with the former colonial power, forcing French troops to withdraw from the countries.
A group of French lawmakers wrote to President Emmanuel Macron in August, arguing that the rise in anti-French sentiment in Africa was the result of Paris failing to successfully cooperate with countries on military, political, and cultural fronts.
The African NEMO, an annual French-led exercise, focuses on training for cooperative actions to establish maritime security and stability in the Gulf of Guinea, with over 20 nations and partners, including US Naval Forces in Africa, participating in the drills last year.
Captain Olivier Roussille, Commander of the Mistral, said the French have had a near-permanent deployment of a naval vessel in the Gulf of Guinea since 1990.
"The heart of our mission is maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea, where France has both interests and strong partners, including Nigeria," Africanews quoted Roussille as saying.
According to the Nigerian Navy, the naval exercises demonstrate the country's commitment to the Yaounde Protocol, a 2013 agreement signed by 25 West and Central African governments as well as regional blocs: the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
A recent United Nations report indicates a decline in piracy and armed robbery at sea. In the first quarter of 2023, only five pirate and robbery incidents were reported compared to eight in the same period of 2022 and 16 in 2021, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
In Nigeria, where the government also launched the $195 million Deep Blue Project in 2021, deploying ships, aircraft, and drones to patrol busy routes along its coast, the IMB reported that the number of actual and attempted piracy attacks on ships fell from 48 in 2018 to six in 2021.
