Another gap in the effective search and rescue coverage along the coast of Africa and out into the Indian and Atlantic Oceans was filled in January with the inauguration of a new Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) in Cape Town, South Africa.
The commissioning of the Centre was preceded by the formal signing of a Multilateral Agreement between the Governments of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa on the co-ordination of maritime search and rescue services in areas adjacent to their coasts.
According to IMO Secretary General Efthimios Mitropoulos, “Situated at the hub of one of the world's busiest trade routes, on the southern tip of the great continent of Africa, this regional Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre will plug one of the remaining gaps in the global search and rescue network and help to put at rest the minds of all those whose work takes them into its area of coverage, whether they be deep sea mariners or the 27,000 or more South Africans employed in the fishing industry.”
More than 4,000 ships in transit pass by the Cape of Good Hope every year as they navigate South Africa's coastline of nearly 3,000 km.
Training for sub-centres
The Cape Town MRCC is equipped with modern facilities and is manned by fully trained personnel. In addition to its primary function, it will also be able to offer training to personnel from the sub-regional Maritime Rescue Sub-Centres (MRSCs) planned for locations in Angola, Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique and Namibia. The MRCC, and its subsidiary sub-centres, will cover sea areas extending up to 3,500 nautical miles into the Indian and Atlantic Oceans and to Antarctica in the south.
The regional search and rescue system around the coasts of Africa is the result of a resolution adopted by the IMO Conference on search and rescue (SAR) and the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), held in October 2000, in Florence, Italy, proposing the establishment of five sub-regional MRCCs in western, southern and eastern parts of Africa, along with 26 sub-centres.
The first MRCC under this initiative, in Mombasa, Kenya, was inaugurated in May 2006, covering the east coast of Africa and out into the Indian Ocean. The Cape Town MRCC covers southern Africa, while three more, in West Africa (in Nigeria, Liberia and Morocco), are currently at the planning stage. The establishment of MRCCs and MRSCs in areas of the world lacking an adequate SAR infrastructure has been and is being supported by the International SAR Fund (ISAR Fund), a multi-donor trust fund, established in 2004 under the auspices of the IMO Secretary-General.
