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On 25th March 2019, a delegation from EU NAVFOR together with EUCAP Somalia met in Bossasso with the Puntland Minister of Ports and Maritime Crime Prevention, Mohamed Abdi Osman, to exchange views on the security situation at sea and to identify opportunities for further collaboration and

The Operational Headquarters (OHQ) for EU NAVFOR is in the final stages of its move from Northwood, UK to Rota, Spain and to Brest, France. The handover will take place on the 29th March 2019.

A joint EU NAVFOR and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) team conducted training with representatives from Seychellois law enforcement agencies and the judicial system, to assist them with continued improvement and development of all areas within the legal process, involving from captu

EU NAVFOR recently supported a successful joint Somali / Ugandan maritime leadership training exercise course in the capital, Mogadishu.

One of EU NAVFOR’s mandated tasks is to provide protection to World Food Programme (WFP) ships that bring food aid to Somalia. This has ensured the safe delivery of over 1.8 million tonnes of food aid to the ports of Somalia as of February 2019.

Counter-piracy operations require a constant presence of maritime forces designed to monitor and deter piracy and armed robbery at sea. EU NAVFOR has been continuing this effort for over 10 years and has maritime and aviation forces continuing to work off the coast of Somalia.

ITS Margottini is re-joining EU NAVFOR for its second six-month tour participating in Op Atalanta, the European Union’s first naval operation, launched in 2008 to prevent piracy at sea off the Horn of Africa and in the Indian Ocean.

Today marks the 482nd anniversary of the founding of the Spanish Marine Corps, the Infantería de Marina. Marines on board EU NAVFOR’s warship ESPS Relampago held a short ceremony on the flight deck to mark the occasion.

During her port visit to the Seychelles, ESPS Relampago’s crew took the opportunity to carry out a range of maritime training exercises with the Seychelles Coastguard and Air Force at Port Victoria anchorage.

EU NAVFOR has supplied 50 First Aid kits to the AAMIN Ambulance Service, which was established to provide free ambulance services after it was observed that no functioning public ambulance services existed.

Meeting with members of the Somali community is important for EU NAVFOR. It is an opportunity for the Somali community to learn the relevance of counter-piracy operations to their country and themselves, but also an opportunity for them to ask questions directly to EU NAVFOR.

EU NAVFOR ship ESPS Relampago recently met the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force destroyer JDS Samidare in Djibouti. Whilst alongside the Commanding Officers met to discuss their ongoing operations in the Gulf of Aden.