IMO Secretary-General commissions Nigerian Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre

A key link in the plan to provide effective search and rescue (SAR) coverage off the coast of Africa has been completed with the commissioning, by IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, of a fully-equipped regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Lagos, Nigeria - the third such commissioning in just over two years, following the inauguration of MRCCs in Mombasa, Kenya, and Cape Town, South Africa, in May 2006 and January 2007, respectively.

The Lagos MRCC covers nine countries (Benin, Cameroon, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, São Tomé & Príncipe and Togo). Its commissioning coincided with the formal signing of a Multilateral Agreement, between interested neighbouring Governments, on the coordination of maritime SAR services in areas adjacent to their coasts.

IMO, for its part, acted as project leader, collaborating with all parties concerned; coordinating the provision of expert advice, training and infrastructure; and monitoring and supervising progress at the various phases.

The inauguration of the new facility marks an important step in a process that began at the October 2000 IMO Conference on Search and Rescue and the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, held in Florence, Italy. Governments at that Conference agreed that a regional approach to the provision of SAR services in western, southern and eastern parts of Africa should be pursued and, to that effect, they adopted a resolution inviting the African countries bordering the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, anti-clockwise from Morocco to Somalia, as well as the nearby Atlantic and Indian Ocean Island States, to establish five regional centres and 26 sub-centres to cover their entire coastline areas for SAR coordination purposes. The Conference envisaged that all the proposed centres could work co-operatively to provide SAR coverage in what had been identified as one of the areas of the world suffering most from a lack of adequate SAR and communications infrastructure.

The establishment of appropriate SAR facilities off the coast of Africa was seen as a key component in the implementation of the Global SAR Plan, the final part of which had been agreed in 1998 at an IMO Conference in Fremantle, Australia and, within which, Nigeria had formally agreed to undertake responsibility for the coordination and control of SAR operations across a substantial sea area exceeding her obligation under the SOLAS Convention to do so in areas around her coast.

The new Lagos MRCC was commissioned on 27 May 2008 by Secretary-General Mitropoulos, accompanied by Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Minister, Federal Ministry of Transportation of Nigeria. In opening the facility, Mr. Mitropoulos paid tribute to the broad co operation between the Governments concerned and international and non-governmental stakeholders which, he said, served to underpin the success of the project. The new MRCC, he added, "will play a considerable part in achieving the overall objective of safeguarding life at sea and increasing the chances that those who find themselves in distress will be able to reach shore safely, while, at the same time, strengthening the region's response to enhanced maritime security and any threat posed by pirates and armed robbers".

Briefing 21, 29 May 2008

For further information please contact:
Lee Adamson, Head, Public Information Services on 020 7587 3153 (media@imo.org) or
Natasha Brown, External Relations Officer on 020 7587 3274 (media@imo.org).

Source: IMO