ABIDJAN – The port of Abidjan, the leader in West Africa, has acquired two vessels of rapid response to allow Côte d’Ivoire to fight against the rampant piracy issue in the Gulf of Guinea. “Those vessels will enable us to fight against piracy,” said the director of the Port Autonome D’Abidjan(AAP), Sie Hien.
Piracy at sea, common in Nigeria, recently gained the waters of Benin, where attacks on ships exploded in 2011.
Côte d’Ivoire has hitherto been spared, but the Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara, acting chief of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), insists regularly on this threat to the region. “We are not immune to pirates,” said the Director of the Port of the Ivorian economic capital. Before the acquisition of this equipment, Côte d’Ivoire had only two less sophisticated vessels to secure its coastline.
