Effective maritime surveillance is one of the keys to safety and security at sea, as recalled in the recent and tragic piracy attack off the coast of Somalia. Competent teams are required for analysing the data and information continuously transmitted from many sources. Thanks to the EU CRIMARIO project with the support of the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC), Madagascar and Comoros will have their own trainers who will in turn enhance the skills within their national administrations. From 20 March to 7 April 2017, 12 professionals from Comoros and Madagascar will learn to become trainers in maritime data visualization.
The very recent attack of Aris 13 tanker off the coast of Somalia reminds us that crime at sea remains active in the Western Indian Ocean and must be fought, and also anticipated. The EU CRIMARIO activities perfectly meet this need, and with an original ‘training of trainers’ curriculum, Madagascar and Comoros will have a pool of specialists able to transfer their knowledge in identifying suspicious behaviour of ships.
From 20 March to 7 April 2017, twelve professionals from Comoros and Madagascar will prepare to become trainers in maritime data visualization, and in turn train their colleagues. These professionals belonging to civilian and military agencies, have been carefully selected after following a first cycle of training and passed control tests. During the first week, a trainer, seconded from the French Navy, will introduce them to adult education; followed by weeks 2 and 3 where they will be perfected on maritime data visualization, and discover the tools to perform effectively their role as trainers.
Moreover, EU CRIMARIO and RMIFC, who both share the exchange of maritime information at the heart of their activities, help to raise awareness among maritime authorities to regional cooperation, as recalled recently by the 21 Djibouti Code of Conduct’s signatory countries during a meeting held in Jeddah. Concretely, RMIFC collects and analyses maritime information on a continuous basis, with a view to anticipating risks and threats in the Western Indian Ocean. For its part, CRIMARIO will soon make available to the partner countries a web portal called IORIS which will be dedicated to real-time maritime information sharing and incident management at sea, both at national and regional level.