[Cotonou, 25 March 2022] Rear Admiral Jean-Baptiste AHO, Chief of Staff of the Beninese Armed Forces, chaired the closing ceremony of the YARIS (Yaoundé Architecture Regional Information System) user training programme, in the presence of the Representative of the European Union Delegation, senior officials of the national administration and the pool of instructors/trainers of the European GoGIN project. He congratulated the thirty or so participants from the administrations of the State Action at Sea who successfully completed this practical training in Cotonou. Download the press release.
Benin has set up a coordinated organisation to manage the State’s action at sea, placed under the responsibility of the National Authority in charge of State Action at Sea (ANCAEM). Headed by the Maritime Prefect, Captain Fernand Maxime AHOYO, ANCAEM works with all the administrations (National Navy, Merchant Navy, Customs, Police, Fisheries, Justice, etc.) to coordinate operations at sea and to monitor, prevent and combat accidents, piracy, illegal fishing and other forms of trafficking.
These administrations are now connected within a national YARIS network, allowing them to use a single secure tool to prepare and conduct maritime safety and security operations, ranging from routine to crisis situations.
The YARIS (Yaoundé Architecture Regional Information System) platform was developed in partnership between the GoGIN project and the Yaoundé Architecture (YA), with support from the European Union. Operational since September 2020, the platform now connects 96% of the maritime centres within the Yaoundé Architecture. Beyond inter-regional coordination, YARIS has proven itself to be a powerful tool to connect national administrations.
Benin is the second country (after Côte d’Ivoire) to have benefited from a new training and roll-out cycle, aimed at creating a national YARIS network.
From March 15th to 25th, some thirty participants from the State Action at Sea administrations learned to know and use YARIS, guided by a mixed team of instructors from GoGIN and the ICC. A new trainer, working at ANCAEM, was certified during this session, and two other trainers from the Beninese Navy are being certified which offers local and quality support to YARIS users. The modular training took the specific needs and varied functions of the different categories of staff present into account. Operational managers, operators and analysts are now able to use the platform for their daily monitoring as well as during exercises and operations at sea.
Lieutenant-Colonel M’PO Isidore M’po, Head of the Maritime and River Customs Department, representing the trainees, said: “Today, with the training provided on YARIS by the European Union’s experts to agents of the Port Authorities and supervisory bodies (the Port, Customs, the Police, the National Navy, the Maritime Prefecture and Fisheries, etc.), all research, analysis and crisis management activities are now simplified, mastered and resolved”.
In the long term, Benin’s national YARIS network will contribute to improving day-to-day maritime surveillance and operational or institutional information sharing; the network will also facilitate effective coordination of operations when necessary.