Pirates’ attacks: Nigerian Navy, western allies embark on sea exercise

The Nigerian Navy (NN) along with its Western allies, Saturday, embarked on a sea exercise along the Gulf of Guinea to tackle the rising cases of pirates’ attacks within the coats of West Africa.

Also embedded in the operation, code-named Obangame Exercise, are the US Navy and those from the West African nations.

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Countries from Europe that are also participating in the week-long operations are France, the United Kingdom and Italy.

The annual exercise, codenamed ‘Obangame Express’ which was initiated by the US in 2011 to strengthen collaboration and capacity of navies in the region to contain maritime challenges, was suspended last year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nigeria deployed six ships.

The Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, while flagging off the exercise onboard the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) THUNDER at the Naval Dockyard Limited (NDL), Victoria Island, said the joint exercise was introduced to foster togetherness of regional navies as a result of the huge resources and vast potential being continuously undermined by multifaceted domestic and cross border threats.