Libreville consults Yaoundé on Gulf of Guinea security

The Prime Minister Philemon Yang received Tuesday the Gabonese Minister of National Defence.

Security was the main focus of the Tuesday mid-day meeting between the Prime Minister Philemon Yang and the Gabonese Minister of National Defence, Ernest Mpouho Epigat, who was carrying a sealed envelope from president Ali Bongo Ondimba to his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya.

The Gabonese Minister of National Defence remarked the solidarity of his country with regard to Cameroon on insecurity at the level of its borders. For the host, the Prime Minister, the situation Cameroon faces today is because of the abuses of the Islamist sect Boko Haram and the situation in the Central African Republic, can happen to any other State in the sub-region.

Then the Gabonese Minister of defence mentioned the putting in place of the inter-regional coordination Centre (Cic) following the holding in Yaoundé of a meeting of the heads of State and Government on maritime security and safety in the Gulf of Guinea.

For Ernest Mpouho, who welcomed that this structure is now operational, the problems faced by the countries concerned are not only at sea. There are those relating to cross-border crime that requires the attention of the countries concerned.

For this reason, he said, president Ali Bongo Ondimba is campaigning for the establishment of a rapid intervention force under the Cic which will be a first response to the threats identified, waiting to see what can be done at a higher level. Yaoundé is the 7th step of a journey that has already led the Gabonese Minister of defence in six other sub-regional capitals.

He was accompanied to the Star building by the Ambassador of Gabon to Cameroon, Paul Patrick Biffot.