The Union of Comoros is committed to strengthen the security and safety of maritime areas under its jurisdiction and adjacent international maritime areas.
The EU CRIMARIO project supports the coastal states of the western Indian Ocean to enhance their maritime domain awareness. Capacity building through training is one of the strong points of CRIMARIO, which has just organized a one-week workshop in Moroni to understand the complexity of maritime transport (22 to 26 October 2018). This session was closed by the Minister of Transport, Mr. Nourdine Ben Ahmed and the representative of the European Delegation to Madagascar and Comoros.
The lecturer, Sylvain Hamon, director of the Institute of International Transport and Ports (Le Havre branch) first showed that the context in which maritime and port activities are embedded is complex and unstable. The course then focused on the three components of maritime transport (goods, ships and ports); for each were detailed the typology, the stakeholders and the contractual and administrative documents. In conclusion the M. Hamon discussed the measures applied since the attacks of 11 September 2001.
The participants were able to discuss and exchange among themselves the issues and challenges that all the maritime stakeholders – public and private – in Comoros must address and respond.
The thirty participants come from all the actors involved in maritime transport in the Comoros: public bodies such as the ANAM (National Agency for Maritime Affairs), the Port Authority, the Comorian Coast Guard, the Gendarmerie, but also private sector companies (shipowner, port manager, handling) and Justice officials.
CRIMARIO will continue to support the Union of Comoros in the maritime domain, training the personnel of the future national coordination center for maritime information sharing how to use the IORIS web platform. IORIS, initiated by CRIMARIO, is a tool to share information and manage in real time any event at sea; IORIS already equips the two regional centers set up by the governments of the ESA-OI region: the Madagascar-based RMIFC and the Seychelles-based RCOC.
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