APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
A Royal Navy warship, HMS Trent, arrived in Lagos on Sunday for its second visit to Nigeria.
According to the statement by the British High Commission, the visit is part of its regional mission to aid allies and partners in driving down illegal activities, including piracy, illicit trafficking and deliver capacity training and support maritime security in the region.
The statement added that the HMS Trent departed Gibraltar carrying an expert boarding team of UK Royal Marines and a Puma surveillance drone.
“HMS Trent’s mission is to support West African allies helping countries to develop capability to fight illegal crimes at sea and ensure they can play an effective role in bringing stability to wider West Africa.
“With around £6 billion of UK trade passing through the region, part of Trent’s tasking is to support stability across the Gulf of Guinea through training to help partner navies take the fight to criminal actors, fostering ties and sharing knowledge, whilst conducting patrols to increase security,” the statement said.
“The Royal Navy has a long history of engagement within the region and an enduring partnership with the Armed Forces of Nigeria. My team are really looking forward to the opportunity to work with their Nigerian counterparts and build on the relationships established when we visited Lagos in 2021,” the report by Ships and Ports on Monday quoted HMS Trent’s Commanding Officer, Commander Tim Langford as saying.
In his remarks, the UK Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Jonny Baxter, said that the deployment demonstrated how a truly Global Britain is stepping up on the world stage to tackle shared international security challenges.
“Nigeria is an important and valued defence partner for the UK in West Africa. Our two countries face many shared threats and we are keen to work with Nigeria to defeat these and to help improve maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea,” Baxter said.
GIK/APA
UK warship arrives in Nigeria to support regional maritime security
