Two French warships, HPD Dixmunde and FF Coduing are leading a French maritime initiative with the Nigerian Navy in an operation codenamed “Exercise NEMO”.
According to naval spokesman, Chris Ezekobe, Exercise NEMO is geared towards sharpening naval personnel skills in anti-piracy and anti-illegal fishing operations.
Ezekobe said the exercise also seeks to strengthen a 2013 agreement between the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to fight piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
“The objectives of the exercise include cooperation in the fight against piracy and illegal fishing in the Gulf as well as testing inter-operability between participating navies.
“The vessels will carry out several exercises including a simulated attack on an oil tanker, which will be tracked by Nigeria’s Maritime Domain Awareness Capability Systems.
“Exercise NEMOs activities will be conducted in our waters between Sep 13 and 16, 2016 and NNS OKPABANA has been designated to partake in the exercise,” Ezekobe said.
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