U.S. to provide radar surveillance to Cameroonian coasts
The United States will provide Cameroon with sophisticated radar gear to monitor the country’s coastal water; the United States is concerned not only about the safety of Cameroonian coasts but also about that of the entire Gulf of Guinea, plagued by sea-hijackings
Cameroonian coasts, especially the Bakassi peninsula southwest of the country, which has been the subject of terrorist attacks in the last months, will be under radar surveillance soon. Janet Garvey, the American ambassador to Cameroon said that the radar surveillance system will be set up in 2010 by the United States, which is concerned not only about the safety of Cameroonian coasts but also about that of the entire Gulf of Guinea, plagued by sea-hijackings.
While waiting for the setting up of the new radar surveillance system next year, “the United States will continue to assist all the countries of the Gulf of Guinea, for a maximum security of their respective coasts,” Garvey said.
According to the U.S. State Department, U.S. plans to focus its interventions on four fields, including the training of sea safety workers, the development of sea safety facilities, the promotion of sea surveillance, and sea intervention capacity building countries in the region. “We are currently working with the Cameroonian government to build a new dike with the view to supporting the safety mission in Bakassi,” Garvey stressed.
The United States has been providing equipment to the Cameroonian Navy to better supervise the area and fight piracy and illegal fishing, since the peninsula of Bakassi has been in the grip of attacks by pirates. The United States promised to provide the Cameroonian Navy with five boats by 2011, two of them in 2010 and three others in 2011, according to Garvey.
