The Gulf of Guinea (GoG) has become a global hotspot for maritime criminality, with a wide range of threats ranging from piracy, armed robbery to kidnap-for-ransom, oil theft and bunkering, different forms of smuggling and trafficking and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, environmental degradation and security at ports. Despite recent improvements, coastal countries and regional institutions still need to enhance their capacities to be better equipped to address these challenges in line with the Yaoundé Code of Conduct.

Since 2016, the “Gulf of Guinea Inter-regional Network” (GoGIN) project, funded by European Union (EU) and implemented by Expertise France (EF) has been contributing to maritime safety and security in the region. This has been done through GoGIN provided technical support to the Yaoundé Architecture (YA) maritime structures including regional and zonal centres, and national bodies in charge of fighting illicit activities at sea. The support has focused mainly on promoting information exchange and coordination between countries in order to enhance collective Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), defined as the understanding of the situation at sea, and enhancing response to incidents at sea. To this end, in 2020, GoGIN designed, in close collaboration with the Yaoundé Architecture Heads of Institutions, and developed the “Yaoundé Architecture Regional Information System” (YARIS), a web-based information exchange and coordination platform. YARIS has since then gained significant support from the GoG and international maritime security community and its deployment is one of the major contributions of the EU to the Yaoundé Architecture. The platform has been deployed across the region and currently almost all maritime centres of the YA (national and supranational) have received an initial training on YARIS.

Funded by EU and implemented by EF, GoGIN II aims to continue and enhance the work initiated by GOGIN (included its extension under GOGIN+), which ends in April 2023. Its overall objective is to contribute to improve maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea in order to favour blue economy and economic development of the countries. GOGIN II’s specific objective is to make the YARIS maritime information-sharing and coordination platform operational, handed over to the Gulf of Guinea region, fully used and functioning.

To achieve these objectives, Expertise France will conduct large-scale capacity building and mentoring activities to maritime administrations and agencies of the 19 coastal states (national networks) and the centres of the Yaoundé Architecture. Moreover, YARIS will be technically enhanced based on users’ needs and YARIS Steering Committee’s guidance.

The international and regional actors, such as Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade – Gulf of Guinea (MDAT-GoG), the EU Coordinated Maritime Presence (CMP) and the individual EU Member States will be encouraged to connect and use YARIS. Finally, in order to ensure the sustainability of the system, the Action will work towards the handover of the legal ownership of YARIS to the Yaoundé Architecture, along with a transfer of competences. The ownership of YARIS by the regional structure is the defining feature of the system compared to other MDA tools being used in the region.