An Italian warship, Luigi Rizzo with a crew of about 185 has berthed at the Tema Port to engage the Ghana Navy in a collaborative exercise aimed at curbing the growing activities of pirates on the gulf of Guinea.
According to statistics, piracy on the Gulf of Guinea shot up to over 200 cases in 2020, with most of these cases being kidnapping and demand for ransom.
In view of this, the Italian Navy which has been patrolling and surveiling both the Gulf of Guinea and other waters for months now, berthed at the Tema Port on the 29th of March for a three- day stopover, aimed at training personnel of the Ghana Navy in a collaborative effort to curb the growing piracy menace.
Leader of the The Luigi Rizzo warship, Commander Dario Castelli said their mission was to train their Ghanaian counterparts and impact on them modernized patrolling and surveillance methods used in combating piracy.
He said the midnight simulation exercise which will be done on the 31st of March 2021, will go a long way to help reduce the rate of pirate activities on the Gulf of guinea.
He added that, the need for such a collaboration between Ghana and other African counterparts in this training and mission, will send a strong signal to the pirates, with regards to their preparedness, adding that Italy will every year delegate two warships for such exercise.
The Luigi Rizzo warship, which has been offering monitoring and surveillance on the Gulf of Guinea for some months now is expected to return to Italy in May after the joint operations.
Source: Mynewsghana
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