West and Central African Coastguard Network

West and Central African Coastguard Network. Twenty member states of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa have adopted a MoU on establishing a sub-regional Coastguard Network for the region.

It provides an institutional framework for suppressing piracy, armed robbery and other unlawful acts against ships and addressing illegal fishing, drug and weapon trafficking, illegal migration, oil theft, damage to gas pipelines and maritime accident response.

It provides guidelines for coastal surveillance, presence in the exclusive economic zones of the subregion and enforcement of international conventions, regulations and codes – principally those of IMO and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

It has provisions on a “right of hot pursuit” in case of unlawful acts perpetrated against ships.

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