AFRICOM counters piracy with training

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AFRICOM counters piracy with training
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, January 12,2009

STUTTGART, Germany — Although they attract less attention than their counterparts operating off the coast of Somalia, pirates continue to be a scourge on the opposite side of Africa, where the U.S. military is engaged in an evolving maritime security training mission.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Phillip Heyl, a special adviser on maritime security operations and logistics for U.S. Africa Command, has been leading an effort to stretch the reach of African law enforcement.

Indeed, piracy has long been a problem around the Gulf of Guinea, particularly off the coast of oil rich Nigeria. "We’ve see nan increase of (piracy) cases in Cameroon" too, Heyl said.

"Cameroon is an example of a country that needs to build that (security) capacity," Heyl added.

While AFRICOM is yet to field a training request from Cameroon for its latest maritime training initiative, other nations have started to show interest after the success of a large-scale operation last year with the Cape Verdean coast guard, Heyl said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59951