A new Regional Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in which Seychelles is collaborating has gone on line in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
The centre is design to provide rapid response to accidents at sea and the growing threat to commercial shipping posed by pirates off the coast of Somalia.
According to a Seychelles Coast Guard official Captain Tom Estico, “the centre will monitor the Indian Ocean coastline from Somalia, Seychelles, Kenya and Tanzania and be linked with a similar facility in Cape Town, South Africa.”
The $1.6m Regional Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre was part funded by the UN's International Maritime Organization
(IMO), under which Seychelles has benefited with over $300, 000 of equipment.
It is equipped with state-of-the-art maritime communications technology and uses satellite technology to collect data from ships and relay information to warships, in nearby waters.
“We are now able to keep a 24-hour watch on ships and other marine vessels in the region and provide necessary assistance upon receiving information about incidents requiring such assistance,” Estico said.
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has reported at least 41 attacks on ships off the Somali coast since mid-March of last year, making the Somali waters the world's most dangerous.
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