• Senegal opens maritime maintenance center at Port of Dakar
• EU-backed equipment strengthens maritime and river security operations
• Initiative targets illegal migration and rising Gulf of Guinea crime

Senegal’s Ministry of the Interior has inaugurated the Maritime Maintenance Center at the Autonomous Port of Dakar along with a new set of maritime equipment. The assets are intended to strengthen the operational capacity of defense forces to improve control of river and maritime zones.

The equipment was acquired with support from the European Union and will help strengthen efforts to combat illegal migration and maritime crime.

The reinforcement comes amid a resurgence of illegal sea migration and security incidents in the Gulf of Guinea. In a report published in October 2025, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said that 15 incidents were reported in the region during the first nine months of 2025, compared with 12 over the same period in 2024. Ten of these cases involved armed robbery, while the other five were acts of piracy.

Other coastal countries in the region have also taken similar measures to curb maritime crime. Stretching from Senegal in the north to Angola in the south, the Gulf of Guinea is a key hub for international trade. Between 2015 and 2022, Interpol implemented its AGWE project in the region to strengthen maritime law enforcement capacity in five countries: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo.

The initiative aimed to create a regional network of experts, strengthen cooperation between institutions, and facilitate the exchange of maritime information.

Henoc Dossa