US NAVY TRAINS GHANAIAN NAVY

20/11/2007

Story: Mary Mensah
The Africa Partnership Station (APS), an initiative recently launched by the United States to support regional maritime security and safety in West and Central Africa, has begun training Ghanaian Naval Officers at Tema.
The APS is a floating continuing education and training facility located on board the USS Fort McHenry, a 185-metre dock landing ship normally used to support amphibious operations which is expected to impart knowledge on issues such as maritime security and fisheries protection to Ghanaian Naval officers.
At a sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a clinic at the Tema Naval Base before the opening of the training programme, the American Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Pamela Bridgewater, said the APS was an expanded effort by the United States Department of Defence and multiple civilian organisations to bring staff training to Africa.
She said APS demonstrated the dedicated partnership in the region and signalled the continuing co-operation between the governments of the United States, Ghana and other Gulf of Guinea nations.
Ms Bridgewater said APS also represented the first fruits of the new parent command, AFRICOM, and would serve as a first step to demonstrate its shared goals to meet African Security issues with African solutions.
She stated that the clinic, which was estimated to cost $120,000 aside labour, was expected to be completed in March, next year. It would provide medical assistance to the military and civilian community in the Tema Naval base area. She said labour would be provided by the 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces.
“Once completed it will be the centre of a community outreach programme jointly run by the international NGO, Project Hope, and doctors from the US Navy,” she said.
The Deputy Defence Minster, Mr Boafo, said about eight years ago the US Navy demonstrated its care by building a clinic at the Southern Naval Base at Sekondi.
He said the construction of the clinic at the Eastern Naval Base in Tema would greatly reduce the burden on the 37 Military Hospital.
He said the US government was running a number of programmes for the Ghana Army in terms of training and urged them to extend the assistance to the Ghana Airforce too.
‘We will no longer travel to the United States to learn naval manoeuvres but will now learn in our own waters with the arrival of the APS in the country,” he said.
The Deputy Minister expressed the appreciation of the government of Ghana to the US government for the continuous support and assistance.
Commander John Nowell of the APS said maritime insecurity in Africa impacted the global community because world trade travelled predominantly by water and forged a global maritime link.
He said the safety, economic security and prosperity of all nations depended on the secure use of the world’s oceans but this could also be used to threaten the security of the people everywhere.
He said maritime insecurity caused by unlawful fishing, illegal drug trafficking, arms and human trafficking, oil smuggling, environmental destruction, piracy and illegal seaborne immigration jeopardised economic development and long-term stability.
Commander Nowell said the APS made its first stop in Dakar Senegal from where they moved to Liberia and Ghana and were expected to go to Cameroon, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe.
It is expected to train 120 Naval Officers each in all the countries they would be visiting.
He said the training teams would work to improve professionalism in four key areas of maritime domain awareness, professionalism, infrastructure and enforcement.
The goal, he said, would be to impart the needed skills for African navies to patrol and maintain their own exclusive economic zones in the sense of maritime safety and security to stop illegal fishing and to combat smuggling, which had become a billion-dollar industry off the West Coast of Africa.