<\/p>\n
Representatives from Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal validated the draft Memorandum of Understanding during a four-day workshop in Banjul.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and Ipieca organised the meeting with the Gambia Maritime Authority under the Global Initiative for West, Central and Southern Africa Project.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The workshop brought together 21 officials from maritime, environmental and disaster-management authorities across the participating countries.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The initiative responds to growing pollution risks associated with increasing maritime traffic and offshore oil and gas operations in the region.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The draft agreement establishes mechanisms for cooperation during normal conditions and mutual assistance when pollution emergencies occur.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Discussions focused on harmonising national regulations, strengthening cooperation, providing assistance during incidents and establishing governance arrangements for the regional framework.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Participants technically validated all articles of the draft agreement and the proposed structure of supporting annexes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The document will now undergo further consolidation before being translated into French and Portuguese.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The signature process is expected to begin in 2027.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Once finalised, the agreement will cover more than 1.2 million square kilometres of shared West African waters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The participating countries said a coordinated arrangement would strengthen preparedness and improve responses to incidents involving oil and hazardous substances.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The countries requested continued technical support from IMO, Ipieca and the regional project to complete and implement the agreement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The organisation said cooperation would help authorities share resources, technical expertise and response capacity during emergencies that exceeded the capabilities of an individual country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The initiative supports implementation of the 1990 International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The framework also complements the Abidjan Convention and the associated Emergency Protocol governing cooperation on marine and coastal environmental protection in West and Central Africa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The IMO said regional coordination, compatible national legislation and clear mutual-assistance procedures would be essential to making the eventual agreement operational.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–IMO\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n
Image: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":50229,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,44,26],"class_list":["post-51022","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Six West African countries have technically approved a draft agreement aimed at strengthening cooperation during oil spills and other marine pollution emergencies.","published_date":"","news_description":"Six West African countries have technically approved a draft agreement aimed at strengthening cooperation during oil spills and other marine pollution emergencies.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/51022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/51022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51024,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/51022\/revisions\/51024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=51022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}