Nigeria-Angola to Fight Gulf of Guinea Insecurity – Minister

Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, has said that the ties between Nigeria and Angola will help foster peace and security at the Gulf of Guinea.

At a meeting with Angolan Minister of External Relations Manuel Augustus, Onyeama disclosed that though there are other areas that will be of mutual benefit to both countries, peace and security, are the main focus.

“We share the Gulf of Guinea and this is again an area we will be looking at. The issue of security at the Gulf of Guinea. We will look at other areas of cooperation.

“We have a joint commission which is the framework for bilateral cooperation between our countries. We obviously need to look at how we will re-ignite which has not met for a number of years,” he stated.

The coastline of the Gulf of Guinea spans over 6000 km, including territories in the West and Central Africa from just Angola to Senegal. There have been serious controlling challenges for states and regional bodies alike to handle such a large expanse of maritime domain. Some of such challenges border around piracy, armed robbery, kidnapping, Transnational Organised Crimes (TOCs) such as illegal fishing, and associated crimes such as drug smuggling through fishing vessels.

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