Amisom's on-board protection team operational

(BRUSSELS2) The commander of the EU anti-piracy operation can be satisfied. It has an additional on-board protection team. 24 Ugandan soldiers from AMISOM (the African Union mission in Somalia) have just completed their training as on-board protection team, announces the French General Staff. Training delivered by the French and Estonians (*) on board Le Floréal, for the theory part, and on board the Peter 1, the civilian ship supplying the Amisom between the port of Mombasa in Kenya and the Somali capital Mogadishu, for the practical part. This action will allow the Ugandans to be independent in the protection of their ship and thus avoid dispersing European forces which may remain available for the protection of other ships. However, Amisom's ships will remain under active surveillance by European ships, for which this is the primary mission, with the protection of WFP (World Food Programme) ships.

It should be noted that the Amisom ship had already been the object of pirate attacks which had been repelled in extremis. Read : An AMISOM vessel attack by pirates. A shield freighter

(*) Estonia has made available to the EU's anti-piracy mission an on-board protection team "domiciled" sometimes on a German frigate, sometimes on a French frigate. Lastly, the Floreal.