_It is a breath of optimism of an end to lawlessness being perpetrated by ghost ships operating under the Cameroon label on high seas.
This is the end substance of the audience granted the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, H.E. Mathew Woods , by the Minister of Transport, Jean Ernest Masséna NGALLE BIBEHE , today March 19, 2026.For this meeting, Minister Jean Ernest Masséna NGALLE BIBEHE was accompanied by: Secretary General, Inspector General, Technical Advisor No.2, Head of Division for Studies, Planning, Programming and Cooperation; Sub-director for Navigation, Safety and the Protection of Maritime and Inland Waterways Environment, Sub-director of Maritime Transport and Inland Waterways, Unit Heads for Follow-up, Communication and Translation.
H.E. Mathew Woods’ presence at the Ministry of Transport was guided by the following preoccupations: the increasing number of ships claiming to be registered under the Cameroon flag (from 32 as of 2025 to 132 as of date); sanction of fraudulent ships under the Cameroon flagship and offer of technical assistance to Cameroon ship registration procedure. Following these preoccupations, it was fair to brief the august guest on the efforts put in place to arrest this situation of ghost ships downplaying Cameroon’s integrity. These are the measures taken so far: an MOU with America to serve with a tracking system but the MOU is on a halt; digitalisation of the registration process with the four centres of Douala, Limbe, Kribi and Garoua; collaboration with ANTIC to identify the fraudulently registered ships and penalty ranging between 5 millions FCFA to 10 million FCFA for ships that put off their IES when sailing.Bade follow these actions, challenges were enumerated, notably: absence of a monitoring and surveillance system and technical diligence of the Merchant Shipping Code. The firsthand solution proposed was information-sharing between UK and Cameroonian experts; UK experts working with the four registration centres and ANTIC.At the end of the meeting both parties vouch availability to collaborate so sanity is installed in the sector.
🖋️ *CELCOM/MINT*
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