In the framework of the fight against maritime insecurity and the response to an event, access to knowledge of the maritime domain is crucial, as well as the sharing of information to prompt the cooperation of the authorities in crisis situations. The YARIS platform provides these two key components, as illustrated by the two recent cases of pirate attacks.
The pirate attack on the MONJASA REFORMER off the Congo, and that of the SUCCESS 9 off Côte d’Ivoire, triggered an international hunt in the Gulf of Guinea to find the crews of both ships safe and sound.
For MONJASA REFORMER, as soon as the alert was triggered, on Sunday, 26 March 2023, CRESMAC acted in cooperation with all the centres of its zone and the support of African and Western naval resources. For SUCCESS 9, the multinational coordination centre of zone F (MMCC) acted, from the alert on Monday, 10 April 2023, in cooperation with the centres of its zone and the support of the international naval resources present.
The hunt made it possible to find all the crew of the SUCCESS 9 safe and sound, on 15 April 2023. However, the cargo was stolen, and the navigation equipment was destroyed by the pirates. For the MONJASA REFORMER, when the assault forces arrived, only some of the 16 crew members were still on board, the other 6 having disappeared with the pirates. Investigations are ongoing to determine the circumstances of these two piracy events.
Interventions coordinated by Yaoundé Architecture
The YARIS system was the information-sharing platform that allowed Yaoundé Architecture to track and coordinate these large-scale operations. The mapping or instant messaging functions, the possibility of configuring predefined alert criteria, or the integration of several external sources allow YARIS to be, simultaneously, a tool for surveillance, anticipation and analysis, but also a means to lead the action in a large-scale naval operation.
In addition to constituting a true digital database, the YARIS system thus makes it possible to carry out analyses and assessments of the threat, which can help political decision-making. It is a true sovereign tool of the countries of the Yaoundé Architecture that allows the improvement of the knowledge of the maritime domain and the control of information in the management of operations at sea, as we witnessed in the two recent cases of maritime piracy.