First Senegal Navy Staff Talks Address Maritime Security Issues, Training

By Lt. Cmdr. Suzanna Brugler, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs

DAKAR, Senegal (NNS) -- U.S Naval Forces Europe participated in the first Senegal navy staff talks Aug. 23-24 at the Senegal navy headquarters in Dakar.

Rear Adm. Mohamed Sane, chief of navy staff for the Senegal Navy, presided over the two-day meeting along with Rear Adm. Kenneth "K.J." Norton, chief of staff for U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa.

The staff talks provided a venue for both navies to meet and discuss collaborative goals centered on a five-year desired future outlook plan concerning maritime safety and security in Senegal's coastal waters and the Gulf of Guinea.

Topics discussed were focused on maritime security operations for combating illicit trafficking, counter-piracy and drug interdiction, as well as enhanced maritime situational awareness in an effort to boost maritime cooperation and interoperability between the two nations.

 Nearly 20 Senegalese and U.S. Navy officers were in attendance.

"The staff talks are very important to us for many reasons. First, the planning time frame of five years helps us look forward and focus our efforts toward our future goals and objectives," said Sane. "Second, it allows us to concentrate on our training needs based on a specific end state. And thirdly, it is a good opportunity for our teams to realign the learning process, to ensure our expressed needs are geared toward capacity-building."

 Those goals are directly aligned with the mission of Africa Partnership Station (APS), a U.S.-led initiative carried-out by participating partner nations from Europe, Africa and the Americas, aimed at providing maritime safety and security in Africa. In conjunction with APS, other programs led by Navy Forces Africa that address maritime safety and security objectives include the "express"-series of exercises, which take place in the African region, and the African maritime law enforcement program.

 In addition to the participating navy officers, two U.S. Marine Corps officers from U.S. Africa Command met with their Senegalese counterparts to discuss littoral and amphibious operational goals and objectives, such as riverine and infantry training, and peacekeeping and non-combatant evacuation operations.

 "We already had a good working relationship with the Senegalese coming into the staff talks, so what we achieved was to codify and reinforce the markers and milestones we needed to establish for carrying out the outlined training needs," said U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Laura Perazzola, regional planner for Marine Forces Africa.

Day one of the staff talks included a series of introductory briefs before Senegalese navy Lt. Abdou Diallo, chief of the maritime operations center (MOC) at the navy headquarters, gave Norton a tour of the MOC. The afternoon was filled with breakout sessions where much of the work and planning was accomplished between the two navies.

 On day two of the staff talks, after a summary presentation of the Senegalese navy's maritime priorities for 2017, Norton concluded with brief remarks that emphasized the importance of cooperation in the maritime environment.

 "The five-year plan is reasonable and achievable if we continue to build upon our successes in capacity-building within the Gulf of Guinea," said Norton. "I say with all sincerity that the Senegal navy provides the U.S. with something that I cherish - capability concerning national security issues that affect all nations.

 "And to that end, we would not be able to successfully address our national security issues if it weren't for the 'ships' that we have built together today. Those 'ships' include the relation-'ships', the partner-'ships', and most importantly, the friend-'ships' that contribute to our shared goal of maritime safety and security."

APS Brings African NCOs to Prepare Training for Deployment

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Christopher B. Stoltz, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs

NAPLES, Italy (NNS) -- Sailors from Maritime Civil Affairs and Security Training (MCAST) helped African sailors develop a senior enlisted leadership curriculum for non-commissioned officers (NCO) at the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa headquarters in Naples, Italy, Aug. 10.

Building off the information learned from earlier Africa Partnership Station (APS) 2012 missions, the course provided eight sailors from Cameroon, Gabon, Nigeria, and Senegal a training outline for senior enlisted leadership that will be used in future APS missions.

"They've had basic and advanced instructor training from previous training missions and engagements that they're basing the curriculum on," said Chief Equipment Operator David Martin, course instructor. "They showed up well-prepared to further that training with 85 slides already finished and ready to add more."

 The African sailors came together to build a final objective for the training, a mission statement for the NCO trainees, a slideshow of 110 slides and an instructor book.

"We learned how to develop the objective, enable the objective and review the objective that will be used to improve our training methods in our home countries," said Senegalese navy Petty Officer 1st Class Mamadou A. N'Diaye. "We can take this improved curriculum back for our NCOs, so they can learn from it."

During the course, the African sailors noticed personal growth and were excited to get back and teach the new curriculum.

"I'll be able to bring up better leaders with this training," said Nigerian Chief Petty Officer Sylvester Amede Odaiche. "The course in Cameroon was basic and this is advanced, and I feel it has made me a better instructor."

Each instructor will train small classes of about 25 NCOs in advanced leadership courses throughout upcoming APS missions.

"I think that things in the curriculum course are very well organized and very easy to understand," said Gabonese navy Petty Officer 1st Class Pierre Mboulou Allogo. "I learned a lot about leadership and the role of being a leader, and that means training our people to be leaders as well."

APS is an international security cooperation initiative, facilitated by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, aimed at strengthening global maritime partnerships through training and collaborative activities in order to improve maritime safety and security in Africa.

U.S. Paves Way for African Counterdrug Cooperation, Success

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

STUTTGART, Germany – When U.S. Africa Command was garnering unprecedented international attention in October during its campaign to protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Ghadafi’s violent crackdown against a rebellion, the command achieved another, less headline-dominating victory.

Police in Cape Verde, a small group of islands off Africa’s west coast, seized an estimated 3,300 pounds of cocaine in the country’s largest-ever drug bust. The cocaine had originated in South America and was transiting through Cape Verde bound for Europe, Africom officials said.

And as confirmed by an International Institute for Strategic Studies report in April, proceeds from shipments like this one are a major funding source for terrorist activities.

Thanks in large part to the new Africom-funded Counter-Narcotics and Maritime Security Operations Center in Cape Verde, profits from the $100 million in captured cocaine there never made it into terrorists’ hands.

The center, built with about $1.5 million from Africom and formally presented to the Cape Verdean government in May 2010, is enabling the country’s police, coast guard and military to collaborate more closely to crack down on illicit trafficking, piracy and other transnational threats, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Mark Huebschman said.

“We feel that interagency center was a key asset that helped facilitate this very significant drug seizure,” Huebschman, chief of Africom’s counternarcotics and law enforcement assistance division, told American Forces Press Service.

The center features inter-island communications relays that give Cape Verdean government agencies and offices the ability to share information and coordinate their activities against narco-trafficking and other illegal activities, Huebschman explained.

To complement its operations, the United States also helped Cape Verde upgrade its tiny, four-craft patrol boat fleet and donated another small high-speed vessel.

As a result, Cape Verde is better equipped to monitor and patrol its vast territorial waters and economic exclusion zone, with the United States providing only a supporting role, Huebschman said.

Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, Africom’s commander, called these efforts an example of the capacity-building initiatives that are helping Africans to solve African problems.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee in February, Ham called narcotics trafficking a destabilizing influence throughout Africa, particularly in West Africa.

“The Africans are not the overall consumers of these drugs that are coming from Central and South America,” he told the House panel. “But they are the transit point for the narcotics that go into Europe.”

Yet the consequences impact Africa directly, he said, breeding corruption and undermining good governance wherever illegal narcotics flow.

“That,” he told Congress, “works contrary to our national interests.”

As traffickers move cocaine shipments through West Africa, their counterparts in Afghanistan and Pakistan are increasingly funneling heroin shipments through East Africa, Huebschman reported. In addition, traffickers are beginning to pay couriers in drugs rather than cash, he said, creating new local markets for drugs on the continent.

Africom is working with its African partners to confront  drug trafficking head-on, while also drawing on resources and expertise from its staff representatives from the Drug Enforcement Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI and Coast Guard, all of which have reach-back to their agencies in the United States.

“This is really a problem we have approached through a whole-of-government effort,” Huebschman said.

The efforts run the gamut, from training to building capacity within partners’ civilian law enforcement agencies or equipment for them to operate, to minor construction projects to establish bases for their operations.

“We also do projects that promote information sharing, like computer systems and telecommunications systems,” Huebschman said. “All are geared toward providing these law enforcement agencies with an enhanced capability to be able to attack these drug-trafficking organizations.”

For example, officials used high-tech full-body scanners provided by Africom and ICE-led training to interdict a drug courier at one of Nigeria’s international airports almost immediately after putting the system into operation, Huebschman reported. The scanners have proven so successful in supporting Nigeria’s counternarcotics efforts that the United States last year removed Nigeria from its list of major illicit drug-producing and drug-trafficking countries.

Meanwhile, Africom continues to promote cooperation among its African partners so they can provide a unified front to address the problem.

For example, law enforcement officials from seven West African countries met in Sierre Leone in December to explore ways to curtail drug trafficking in the region. The conference, organized by the U.S. State and Justice departments under the auspices of the West Africa Cooperative Security Initiative, focused heavily on the need to combat transnational organized crime activities, particularly corruption, in West Africa.

A new strategy document developed through that initiative is designed to take this effort to the next level by leveraging ongoing efforts by international partners and organizations: G8 partners, The European Union, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, among them.

“We’re trying to approach this problem from an international perspective, and to leverage all the resources and capabilities that these various countries and agencies bring to this challenging problem,” Huebschman said.

Meanwhile, rather than basking in the glory of their recent cocaine interdiction, the Cape Verdeans are continuing to exercise with their counterparts from the United States and Europe to improve their maritime security operations.

They recently took part in the multinational Saharan Express 2012 exercise, part of the Africa Partnership Station mission focused on combating illicit activities -- such as illegal fishing, narcotics-trafficking and piracy -- that are endangering the maritime security in many of the participant nations.

Ten regional militaries participated in the training, conducted off the coasts of Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia, with scenarios that included visit, board, search and seizures, search-and-rescue scenarios, medical casualty and radio communication drills, and information management practice techniques.

“We live in a world that is confronted with many problems like piracy, drug trafficking, terrorism, organized crime,” said Col. Alberto Ferdandes, chief of staff for the Cape Verde armed forces. “It’s necessary for each of us to find a solution to respond to these problems in an efficient manner, we need to have a communal response and it is important that we are all prepared so we can produce a unified action.”

“We all know that illegal fishing threatens the food security of our countries,” agreed Senegalese Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Mohamed Sane. “Illegal acts like immigration, arms trafficking, pollution, piracy and terrorism threaten social stability. No maritime power can face these challenges alone.”

(Navy Lt. Nathan Potter, public affairs officer for U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet, contributed to this article.)

Africans Training Africans in Cameroon

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Gary A. Prill, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs

DOUALA, Cameroon (NNS) -- The Senegalese military contributed a mobile training team in support of Africa Partnership Station (APS) 2011 in Cameroon, June 10.

For the first time in APS history, Senegal contributed a three-man team to teach a five-day visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) course to Cameroonian, Congolese and Gabonese students.

"APS has grown," said Capt. Lawrence Rollo, maritime affairs officer for Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa. "We have more hubs focused on more training with international and multinational exercises at sea. In the future, we hope that this continues to grow and more African partners will step up as training teams for APS."

In the past, all APS training was conducted by country trainers from nations outside of Africa. Trainers have consisted of teams from Brazil, Italy and the United States.

"APS is a program of partnership among African nations and other friends. It helps create fraternity, solidarity and cooperation among these African states," said Senegalese instructor Raphael Toudji. "Already the communication is easier; we have shed the language barrier we had when working with many non-African partners. Additionally, our countries are becoming more aware that we truly have the same adversaries. They are not our neighbors' militaries, but the illegal actors in our region."

One of the most significant impacts of having African nations teaching other African nations is the relationship reinforcement the two countries receive.

"We need to reinforce these relationships of cooperation against the traffickers and pirates. The increase of sharing intelligence and training among our nations ensures that the bad actors who are trying to take advantage of us will not prevail," Toudji explained.

APS is a multinational security cooperation initiative, currently comprised of 34 nations and sponsored by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa. It is aimed at improving maritime safety and security in Africa while building lasting relationships.

APS brings together an international team of expert trainers in a variety of military capabilities, and a handful of civilian fields. It focuses on addressing maritime professionals, maritime infrastructure, maritime domain awareness and response capabilities while simultaneously fostering regional and comprehensive approach.

USS Robert G. Bradley in Senegal for Africa Partnership Station Exercise

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Darryl Wood, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Africa/ Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs

DAKAR, Senegal (NNS) -- USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG 49) arrived in Dakar, Senegal, for its second multinational exercise on its Africa Partnership Station (APS) West deployment, April 20.

Bradley is in Dakar to participate in Exercise Saharan Express 2011, which begins with a pre-sail conference, April 25.

Saharan Express 2011 is a multinational exercises focused on improving the communications and interoperability of West African countries to counter narcotics trafficking and proliferation.

Through joint cooperation efforts, Africa's growing maritime capabilities ensure regional security and stability. APS Bradley continues to enhance the regional capabilities in West and Central Africa by helping to build maritime professionals and international partnerships.

Robert G. Bradley will also conduct a search-and-rescue (SAR) exercise with the Cape Verde navy. The SAR exercise will include a command platform, an air search helicopter and surface search small boats. This training is essential in establishing safety to a country's coastal waters by providing a rapid and effective rescue force.

"Saharan Express will be a great opportunity for our boarding team and SAR team to evaluate and train with our African partners" said Lt. j.g. James Carles, USS Robert G. Bradley boarding officer. "This exercise will further expand the maritime security of all the participating partner nations."

Robert G. Bradley's visit to Dakar will include a military-to-military community relations (COMREL) project, office calls to prominent officials, tours of the ship and a reception held on board.

USS Robert G. Bradley, an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, is homeported out of Mayport, Fla., and is on a scheduled deployment to West and Central Africa.

APS is an international security cooperation initiative, facilitated by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, aimed at strengthening global maritime partnerships through training and collaborative activities in order to improve maritime safety and security in Africa.