The ECOWAS Act  which was adopted on 3 July 2022 , primarily serves to facilitate the transfer of piracy suspects and their associated property and/or evidence between ECOWAS member states with the appropriate legal framework to ensure ‘legal finish’. This will be possible through the prosecution of piracy, while ensuring compliance with applicable international human rights law, including the treatment of suspected or transferred persons, as well the inclusion of provision related to death penalty to safeguard that no transferred person or persons are subjected to death sentence for acts of piracy.

Consistent with its commitment, and with the adoption of the Supplementary Act by ECOWAS, UNODC with the support of ECOWAS and EU, has developed implementing arrangements in the form of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the Supplementary Act which are proposed to guide evidence collection at sea, detention on board, and the transfer procedures for suspects apprehended at sea for the implementation of the Act.

In the framework of Obangame Express 2023 Exercise, UNODC in collaboration with ECOWAS, the EU and the navies of Senegal, Morocco, French  has facilitated the testing of the transfer procedures described in the SOPs, simulating in real time at sea  the scenarios developed for the exercise, the transfer of piracy suspects and evidence between  two ECOWAS Zone G countries (Senegal , Capo Verdo) with the support of their Maritime Operations Centers.

The simulation exercise which took place on 31 January 2023, provided an opportunity to apply the Supplementary Act and its implementing SOPs, and to understand possible challenges and difficulties in their implementation in real piracy transfer cases.  In addition, it afforded the opportunity for the Competent Authorities of the ECOWAS Zone G countries to send, receive, analyze, and respond to handover requests for based on the evidence collected at sea.

With the simulation exercise, the national authorities in the Zone G countries have increased understanding of the nature and details of the ECOWAS Supplementary Act, its implementing arrangements (SOPs) and the established network with the ‘competent authority’ of the Act of the Zone G Member States.