EU NAVFOR delegation visits Yemeni Coastguard and Navy

A del­e­ga­tion from EU NAVFOR Force Head­quar­ters made a suc­cess­ful vis­it to the Chief of the Yemeni Coast Guard and Deputy Com­man­der of the Yemeni Navy. The vis­it was a fol­low up on HNLMS JOHAN DE WITT’s ear­li­er vis­it to Yemen and also in prepa­ra­tion for fur­ther co-oper­a­tion between EU NAVFOR and Yemen.

The EU NAVFOR Force Head­quar­ters Chief of Staff, Com­man­der Benedet­to Espos­i­to, presents an EU NAVFOR Crest to the chief of the Yemeni Coast Guard, Brigadier Gen­er­al Mohamed Ali Rasa. Source: EU NAVFOR Click to enlarge

A few weeks ago, HNLMS JOHAN DE WITT con­duct­ed a joint train­ing exer­cise with the Yemeni Coast Guard. Increased co-oper­a­tion and infor­ma­tion shar­ing between EU NAVFOR and the region­al states is impor­tant for the suc­cess of Oper­a­tion ATALANTA and oth­er mar­itime safe­ty and secu­ri­ty issues. Strong part­ner­ship between the Inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and the region­al nations is the long term solu­tion to pira­cy in the region. The del­e­ga­tion was enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly wel­comed by the Yemeni author­i­ties. This event has enhanced the grow­ing co-oper­a­tion and under­stand­ing between the Yemeni author­i­ties and the Task Forces oper­at­ing in the region, EU NAVFOR, the Com­bined Mar­itime Force – CTF 151 and the NATO Task Force. EU NAVFOR Soma­lia – Oper­a­tion ATALANTA’s main tasks are to escort mer­chant ves­sels car­ry­ing human­i­tar­i­an aid of the World Food Pro­gramme (WFP) and ves­sels of African Union Mis­sion in Soma­lia, AMISOM and to pro­tect vul­ner­a­ble ves­sels in the Gulf of Aden and Indi­an Ocean and to deter and dis­rupt pira­cy. EU NAVFOR also mon­i­tors fish­ing activ­i­ty off the coast of Somalia. 

Press release
EU NAVFOR