Guinea Naval Forces

The naval force is one of the essential components of the national armed forces of Guinea. It is intended to support the Republic defense policy. In 1975 little information was available regarding the navy apart from what could be surmised from equipment inventories and the sporadic bits and pieces gleaned from government documents and media releases. The navy, which came into existence in about 1967, provided limited coastal and river patrol services. In 1974 its modest inventory of vessels included Soviet-built motor torpedo boats of the eighty-five-foot, sixty-ton class; similar vessels built by the PRC; Soviet ninety-eight-foot motor patrol boats; and small utility landing craft. The condition of the vessels on hand was poor, and several may not have been operational in early 1975. The navy was entirely dependent upon the Soviets or the Chinese Communists for logistics and training.

The Guinean Sea force meets the following traditional missions:

• ensure permanent surveillance of territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone of the Republic of Guinea;
• effectively help defend the Guinean coast constituting a barrier to any aggression strength attempting to enter the country through its maritime boundaries
• ensure in the Guinean territorial waters freedom of maritime traffic;
• participate in the repression of maritime smuggling
• participate in the maritime police and the regulation of maritime navigation;
• participate maritime transport.

To accomplish these missions, the navy has:

• a staff at the senior level;
• navies incorporated divisions and brigades of ground forces incorporated marines units and coastal artillery,
• logistics support services;
• a training center naval intended to provide maritime forces trained personnel.

At the Navy headed by a senior officer, Chief of Staff who has authority over the staff, all the land and sea forces of the Navy. To carry out these missions, the coast is divided into four régions opérationnelles maritimes [ROM operational maritime regions]:

• ROM from the center: Conakry headquarters
• of South ROM seat Benty
• ROM Boffa
• the northern ROM seat Kamsar

The Gulf of Guinea (GG) is a large area encompassing 23 countries including: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. The 8,200 km2 of the GG is in majority plane level with high ground culminating in Mount Cameroon (4,095 m).

Piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf of Guinea continue to trend upwards with more incidents occurring in 2016 than any of the previous four years. Pirates/armed groups operating in the region typically carry out attacks on vessels using automatic weapons. Attacks, kidnappings for ransom, and robbery of crew, passengers, and ships property, continue to be the most common type of incidents.

Obangame Express took place March 20-31 and encompassed an in-port Command Post Exercise and an underway Field Training Exercise in the Gulf of Guinea. Obangame Express 2017 provided African, European, South American and U.S. partner maritime forces the opportunity to work together, share information and refine tactics, techniques and procedures in order to assist Gulf of Guinea maritime nations with building capacity to monitor and enforce their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones.

Exercise Obangame Express is sponsored by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and designed to improve regional cooperation, maritime domain awareness (MDA), information-sharing practices, and tactical interdiction expertise to enhance the collective capabilities of Gulf of Guinea and West African nations to counter sea-based illicit activity.

Participating states included Angola, Benin, Belgium, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Congo, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Togo, Turkey, the United States, and the United Kingdom, as well as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).