EUCAP Somalia and its Somali partners participate in Mediterranean Coast Guard Functions Forum

EUCAP Somalia and its Somali partners participate in Mediterranean Coast Guard Functions Forum

EUCAP Somalia and its Somali partners participate in high-level Mediterranean Coast Guard Functions Forum

Last week in Rome, EUCAP Somalia and its Somali partners participated in the high-level Mediterranean Coast Guard Functions Forum (MCGFF). The Mission facilitated the Somali participation, which also included a bilateral meeting with the Italian Coast Guard - Guardia Costiera.

The Mission is proud that two Italian Coast Guard officers are deployed as maritime advisers within the Mission: Commander Paolo Margadonna (Senior Maritime Adviser) and Commander Carmine Berlando (Maritime Adviser).

Over the last eighteen months, significant achievements were reached within the framework of the Mission's maritime cooperation and training objectives: the establishment and inauguration of the first Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) Mogadishu; the training of a selected Maritime Training Team composed of representatives from the Ministry of Ports and Marine Transport and the Somali Police Force - Department of the Coast Guard; as well as the delivery of courses on MRCC operations management, emergency standard operating procedures at sea, the drafting of an operational manual, and both basic and advanced training in dead reckoning navigation, radar navigation, and basic meteorology.

Additional courses were delivered on familiarization with the Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Information Systems, International Maritime Organization-compliant training for Search and Rescue (SAR) Mission Coordinators, SAR operational room exercises, and Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure activities, also through live exercises with EUNAVFOR ATALANTA assets, within the framework of Local Maritime Capability Building.

The participation of EUCAP Somalia and its Somali partners in the MCGFF and the bilateral meeting with the Italian Coast Guard was therefore aimed at consolidating the achievements reached so far, at establishing regional cooperation with partners from East Africa and the Mediterranean, and at fostering synergies to attain the full operational capability of the Somali SAR system.

/media/131242

/media/131243