An oil spill training exercise took place in Abidjan and Assinie, Côte d’Ivoire on June 8th and 9th, in which a tanker collided with an unknown ship off the Ivorian coast, causing a major oil spill. The deployment exercise involved more than 100 participants from various public institutions and the private sector, working together to fight the simulated spill, first at sea and then ashore.
The event tested Côte d’Ivoire’s National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, which has been developed over recent years with support from the Global Initiative for West, Central and Southern Africa (GI WACAF) – a joint IMO-IPIECA project.
International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s Julien Favier of the GI WACAF project and a consultant from the French Navy, Lieutenant Charles-Henri Thouaille, participated in the exercise as observers on request of CIAPOL.