Written by Hajira Amla and Bella Damoo | From Seychelles News Agency

The government of Japan has donated a Navtex broadcasting station to the government of Seychelles as part of efforts to fight piracy and boost maritime safety for ships in the Western Indian Ocean.

Seychelles, which is a signatory of the Djibouti Code of Conduct of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), will use the equipment to broadcast navigational and meteorological warnings, rescue information and pirate attack warnings to vessels up to 400 nautical miles away from the main island of Mahé.

According to a report in the Seychelles Nation, the equipment was handed over to the island nation’s Minister for Home Affairs and Transport Joel Morgan by the special advisor to the secretary general of the IMO, Yoshiaki Ito, on Monday at the Seychelles Coast Guard (SCG) base at Ile Perseverance.

At the handover ceremony, Ito praised the Seychelles, saying that although island state had been hard-hit by the effects of piracy, the government had been proactive in building its capacity to fight piracy and increase maritime safety of its own accord.

“Furthermore, we see the government of Seychelles offering to assist Somalia in building capacity for managing Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. This demonstrates the spirit of cooperation and inter-regional support that the Code aims to foster,” he added.

Read more at Seychelles News Agency