Beginning of the Grand African NEMO 2024 exercise

From November 4 to 12, 2024, the 7th edition of the major exercise Grand African NEMO 2024 (GANo 24), co-organized by the French Navy and the Yaoundé Architecture, will bring together 18 coastal nations of the Gulf of Guinea and 10 allied nations including France.

The exercise will take place in a vast maritime zone from Senegal to Angola.

Thus, 55 naval units, 12 aircraft, and many maritime specialized administrations and organizations ashore will work together for about ten days to participate in various exercises, all developed according to the security challenges that the nations of the region face.

Since 2018, Grand African NEMO has become the annual meeting of maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea. This 7th edition, which brings together an unusually large number of military means at sea, on land and in the air, aims to share expertise and improve the operational level of each in terms of fighting illegal fishing, piracy, maritime pollution, illegal trafficking and sea rescue.

GANo 24 will also benefit from the support of many partners: the European Union through programs such as GoGIN, EnMar and SEACOP, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the Center for Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (CEDRE), the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (CSRP), the Fisheries Committee of the Center-West (FWCO/CPCO) or the Regional Fisheries Commission of the Gulf of Guinea (COREP).

Thanks to their leading role in the partnership resulting from the Yaoundé Protocol of 2013, France, the Architecture and all their partners are making a decisive contribution to improving maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.

From November 4 to 12, follow the news of the Grand African NEMO exercise on social networks with the hashtag: #GANo24.

The Gulf of Guinea

Extending over 5,707 kilometers of coastline in West Africa, from Senegal to Angola, the Gulf of Guinea is a major maritime region. Located at the crossroads of major maritime routes, the region has important natural resources, including petroleum, fisheries, and minerals, which are conducive to greed and the development of illegal activities.

The African NEMO exercises

Since the Yaoundé Summit of 2013, the French Navy has organized, in conjunction with the Yaoundé Architecture and its partners, three to four maritime exercises per year in the African NEMO (Navy’s Exercise for Maritime Operations) and one annual major exercise Grand African NEMO, which brings together a larger number of units and operational centers. These recurring exercises alternate from one area to another of the Gulf of Guinea but always with the same objective: to strengthen the ability of the navies of the coastal states to cooperate and act together in the context of the action of the State at sea.

Source : Ministère des Armées et des anciens combattants