Publication: Cape Times Issued: Date: 2005-09-15 Reporter: Helmoed Romer Heitman Reporter:

Navy Chiefs Call for Co-operation

 

Publication 

Cape Times

Date

2005-09-15

Reporter

Helmoed Romer Heitman

Web Link

www.capetimes.co.za

 

Africa's seas need collective policing

South of the Sahara, "African seapower" is a contradiction in terms. The states south of the Sahara have a coastline of some 18 180 km and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of more than 6.73 million kmē.

They have five major warships, the four South African patrol corvettes and a Nigerian frigate, 47 smaller vessels, 60 assorted patrol boats - not all of them operational - and 24 patrol aircraft, all but seven of them short-range.

They are simply not in any position to patrol their waters, and therefore have no ability to control what goes on off their shores.

So what? The problem is that Africa, including its landlocked states, depends heavily on seaborne trade.

Also, several coastal states have offshore oil and gas industries that are increasingly important, internationally. Others have offshore diamonds, and most of the coastal states rely on fish for a fair proportion of their protein and for export. The sea is of very real interest to Africa, and Africa should be able to control what goes on in its waters. The problem is that one cannot control what one does not patrol, and Africa south of the Sahara lacks the capacity to patrol effectively.

Against that background, it is hardly surprising that the focus of the recent "Seapower for Africa" symposium in Cape Town, attended by chiefs or senior officers from most of Africa's navies and coast guards, was firmly on co-operation.

The symposium was opened by the Minister for Intelligence Services, Ronnie Kasrils, who pointed out that "the destiny of this continent has for centuries been determined by the sea powers of the world, not by the people of the continent. That has been the case because they had the ability, the sea power, to come to Africa and to have their way."

Nothing much has changed.

Kasrils stressed that South Africa intends to be a "partner in developing our continent, and in ensuring its security and its future", and that "the South African Navy will be there to support the other navies of Africa, to complement your capabilities with our new patrol corvettes and submarines and to supplement your capabilities with both larger and smaller ships when that is needed".

"Our future fleet planning will take into consideration what capabilities we will need to be best able to operate with our neighbours to achieve our common goals."

The theme of regional co-operation was specifically taken up in papers presented by the Chief of the Cameroon Navy, Vice-Admiral n'Gouah-n'Gally, the Egyptian Chief of Naval Staff, Rear-Admiral Hesein Mameesh, and the Nigerian Navy Secretary, Commodore OS Ibrahim.

Mameesh focused on the importance of maritime chokepoints around Africa, arguing for a "new stage of naval co-operation, in order to secure chokepoints and hence our economic interests". He also confirmed that the Egyptian Navy would deploy south of the Red Sea to support East African navies if that became necessary.

Ibrahim focused on the growing problem of maritime crime and piracy and argued for the establishment of "sub-regional maritime crime reporting centres" similar to the Piracy Reporting Centre in Malaysia, and for those states that have effective navies or coast guards to consider "extending the policing role" to cover the waters of neighbours who lack effective naval capability.

He also proposed that the Nigerian and South African navies, the only two reasonably balanced navies south of the Sahara, should "collaborate in the security of African waters".

Other papers also made the case for co-operation, arguing that the small size of Africa's navies demands that they be flexible, to be able to handle a range of tasks; be inter-operable, to allow effective co-operation; be complementary, to avoid the waste of unnecessary duplication of capabilities and resources; and able to supplement each other when that is necessary.

One effect of greater co-operation would be that the larger navies would focus more on those capabilities that their smaller neighbours cannot afford to acquire or support. One obvious example are South African's patrol corvettes and Nigeria's frigate NNS Aradu, which can conduct extensive patrols that smaller ships cannot.

Similarly, South Africa's submarines will be able to conduct surveillance operations against gun running or other smuggling, much as South American countries do in their fight against drug smuggling and as Canada has done against Spanish and American vessels fishing illegally in its waters.

The SA Navy would also be able to operate large landing platforms that, together with the small landing ships and large landing craft operated by some other African navies, would greatly facilitate the deployment of forces for peace support operations.

Those ships would also be of immense value in disaster relief and emergency aid operations, their landing craft and helicopters being able to cover extended stretches of coast and to reach isolated communities quite far inland. The landing craft, helicopters, troops, engineers or medical teams deployed by those ships could be drawn from any of the coastal states.

The potential for regional co-operation in maritime and naval training, and in maritime research and development, were also discussed as key areas to be developed.

Maritime law enforcement is another area where there is a clear need for the countries of Africa to co-operate.

First, however, they need to organise their own systems. Few African states have any clear maritime policy, and most have confused, overlapping authorities and legislation on the one hand, and inadequate legislation on the other.

One example from Kenya: A naval vessel arrested a boat fishing illegally and handed the matter over to the police. The police found nothing relevant in the statute book and finally had to charge the errant fishermen with "theft of fish from the sea". The prosecuting authority then pointed out that "the sea" could not be a complainant, and the case was dropped. That is not the way to "run a railroad", let alone to secure a key national and regional asset.

At a more fundamental level, the symposium also highlighted some basic issues, key among them the need for African states to chart their maritime boundaries and claims, and to do so before the United Nations deadlines expire.

There are two issues here. One is that any international maritime boundaries that have not been agreed by the deadline, will be set by international consultants contracted by the UN at exorbitant cost.

The other is that if any possible 'extended continental shelf' claims are not registered by the due date, they will fall away. With them will fall away any resources that might lie under that extended continental shelf. The need is clear and the deadlines are drawing near.

The problem is that few African states have any hydrographic survey capability. Once again a case for co-operation.

The symposium resolution focused strongly on the need for general co-operation, and particularly to "fight against maritime crime and piracy", and argued for "empowering elements of national navies to perform coast guard functions", which is impaired by a lack of powers of arrest and inadequate legislation.

It stressed the need to "employ the Continental Early Warning System of the African Union, linked to the Regional Early Warning Systems, to ensure pro-active, effective and efficient use of Africa's collective maritime assets in the prevention of conflict", and the need to "enhance the exchange of information".

Other areas to be addressed are optimising co-operation in training, and the "requirement to optimise and accelerate co-operation and integration at regional and continental level in matters of scientific and engineering technology specific to the maritime environment".

Closing the symposium, the chief of the SA Navy, Vice-Admiral Refiloe Mudimu, drew the key conclusion: "It has become evident from the papers presented and deliberated, that we all face common challenges, we all have common interests and that we all feel the need for mutual co-operation. We have agreed to the need to have a common commitment and to jointly ensure the protection and safety of all mariners that use our seas for trade and livelihood."

The navy and coastguard chiefs of Africa came away from the symposium in agreement that closer co-operation is essential.

The next step will be to convince the respective political masters. Given Africa's long-established tendency to look inland, that will be the real challenge.

With acknowledgements to Helmoed Heitman and the Cape Times.


In the good ole, bad ole days they used to say :
"Oh hell, now that we've started a war, we'd better buy some equipment."
Now they say"
"Oh hell, now that we've bought some equipment, we'd better start a war. *1"

*1  Or at least find a war *2.

*2  Patrol corvettes are frigates and frigates are warships.

Warships are for fighting wars, not preventing theft of fish from the sea.

Lessons in Anti-Poaching Operations at Sea

1.  If one fires an Excocet MM40 Block 2 anti-ship missile from a frigate at an African fishing vessel, then either one will miss, or no one will ever know.

2.  If one fires an Excocet MM40 Block 2 anti-ship missile from a frigate at an American fishing vessel, then the US State Department is going to get as mad as a snake and Dr Rice might just order a Tomahawk cruise missile in exchange.