Naval forces from across West and Central Africa, alongside international partners, converged in November for Grand African Nemo 2025, a multinational maritime exercise aimed at enhancing regional cooperation and combating sea-based crimes in the Gulf of Guinea.
The weeklong exercise, which commenced on November 10 in Accra, Ghana, focused on improving the capacity of participating navies to jointly respond to threats such as illegal fishing, piracy, and human and drug trafficking. The annual drill was led by the French Navy and brought together national maritime operations centres, multinational maritime coordination centres (MMCCs) and regional information hubs in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo.
More than 55 naval and coast guard assets, supported by 11 aircraft, were deployed across multiple maritime zones, where participants conducted simultaneous operations designed to strengthen coordination, collaboration and interoperability.
Speaking on the importance of the exercise, the Deputy Chief Staff Officer for Operations and Training at the Ghana Navy Headquarters, Commodore Stephen Billince Anyam, described Grand African Nemo as critical to sustaining maritime safety in the region.
“Every participating country has a specific responsibility,” Anyam said. “Some focus on counter-piracy operations, others deal with human and drug trafficking, while others are tasked with search and rescue missions. This coordination ensures that we respond swiftly and effectively to threats at sea.”
Countries that took part in the exercise included Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone and Togo. Denmark, Italy, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal and Spain supported the exercise with naval vessels, aircraft and specialist teams.
According to defenceWeb, France deployed its Mistral-class amphibious assault ship, FS Tonnerre, which operated alongside several African navies. The vessel hosted a regional training programme involving about 40 officers, combining command-and-control instruction with practical sea exercises, including a simulated narcotics interdiction carried out with the Nigerian Navy.
The Director of MMCC Zone F in Accra, Ivoirian Navy Captain Daniel Gnamiene Ehu, praised the French Navy for its continued support since the inception of Grand African Nemo in 2018.
“For seven days, the navies and coast guards will deploy vessels across our waters alongside the French and Spanish navies to practise real-time scenarios involving illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, piracy, drug trafficking, human trafficking and maritime pollution,” Ehu said.
Additional operations were coordinated through MMCC Zone G in Praia, Cabo Verde, where Gambian and Senegalese boarding teams conducted maritime security missions aboard a Moroccan Navy ship. MMCC Zone G covers Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Senegal.
Other aspects of the exercise included drills on narcotics and contraband interdiction, pollution response and environmental protection, search and rescue operations, boarding and inspection procedures, and enhanced information sharing through regional coordination mechanisms.
Several international organisations also contributed expertise to the exercise, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Interpol, the European Union, the European Fisheries Control Agency, the French pollution-response agency Cedre, the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea, and the Gulf of Guinea Regional Fisheries Commission.
Grand African Nemo 2025 once again highlighted the growing commitment of African navies and their partners to safeguarding maritime security and protecting vital sea lanes in the Gulf of Guinea.
