Organization and Mission of the Cbetween Rregional of SSecurity Mmaritime of theAAfrica CCentral (CRESMAC)

The CRESMAC is a multinational and multifunctional body composed of civil servants and from military administrations of the Member States having competence in relation to the marine environment, as listed above - after :

1. the French Navy ;
2. the Merchant Navy and ports ;
3. the Fisheries Administration ;
4. the Police and the Gendarmerie at borders ;
5. Customs ;
6. the Administration of the environment ;
7. the Shippers Council.

The CRESMAC is installed in Pointe-Noire in the Republic of the CONGO and has for mission to ensure, at the strategic level, control of maritime space of States of ECCAS of the Gulf of Guinea by :

• The protection of natural resources and areas of maritime fishing ;
• La sécurisation des routes maritimes ;
• La lutte contre :
  • illegal immigration ;
  • drug trafficking ;
  • the fraudulent circulation of small-calibre arms ;
  • piracy and the taking of hostages at sea ;
  • marine pollution ;
  • the ships under standard ;
• and any other task necessary for the implementation of the strategy.

For the performance of its tasks, the CRESMAC is at the top of an operational architecture to three (3) levels :

• At the regional level, the CRESMAC ;
• At the level of maritime zones, multinational coordination centres (CMC) responsible for planning and implementing operational and tactical ;
• At the national level, Navy operational centres (COM) loads of the implementation and the tactical coordination of the national forces.

CMCs are installed in Douala in Cameroon (zone D) and being installed in ANGOLA (zone A).

Operationalization

The operationalization of the current CRESMAC is to apply the rise of the security apparatus of the maritime spatial plan, prepared by the secretariat of ECCAS in December 2012.

In the ramp-up phase, the CRESMAC is linked to various public and private partnerships, multifaceted and multisectoral as his involvement in the exercises OBANGAME EXPRESS with the USA and NEMO with the France, as well as its participation in workshops and conferences related to the action of the Sea State (AEM) such as those organized by the G7 group ++ and the European Union as part of the capacity-building aimed at the education and training of its personnel.

The CRESMAC benefits from the logistic and financial support of the Secretariat General of ECCAS, but also of the Republic of the CONGO and various projects.
So far, equipment, the manning and the implementation of a central monitoring station continue progressively.

However, activation of the CMC of the area was in ANGOLA modeled on the model of the MCC of zone D in Douala Cameroon, that action produced tangible results in space ECCAS, will complete the operative part of the Protocol of Kinshasa and will contribute remarkably to the promotion of security and maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.

Finally, the Organization of the Conference Maritime States of ECCAS could be a vector for the remobilization of all stakeholders related to the EMEA to facilitate the application of the Protocol of Kinshasa.

The Maritime theater space

The area of maritime space of theatre of the States of ECCAS in the Gulf of Guinea extends over 1.224.912 Km2 and is 3307km. It is divided into two (2) areas :

• Zone A includes : ANGOLA, the CONGO and the DRC
• Zone D including : Cameroon, GABON, SAO TOME and PRINCIPE and Equatorial Guinea

Rules and Procedures

The CRESMAC implements a plan of voluntary return for ships operating in its space.

All vessels operating in zones A and D are encouraged to implement the AIS system, to communicate and connect with different CMCs and the center of eve of the CRESMAC in Pointe Noire by email or telephone.

Once established contact, the CRESMAC and its different CMC will be able to :

• Prevent the vessel on the incidents
• Send ships incidents and suspicious activity reports in the transit area
• Share security information provided by vessels and other sources to the competent authorities for any need.