The President of the African Civil
Aviation Commission (AFCAC), Mr.Ceubah Guelpinah, wants African
States to ratify treaties on aviation security especially the
Beijing AVSEC Convention and Protocol of 2010. "AFCAC calls on all
African States to sign or ratify these treaties as soon as
possible," he states. Mr. Guelpina says the Beijing Protocol
"addressed the issue of insider threats by criminalizing globally
acts of terrorism and collaborators such as Directors, agents,
financiers, conspirators, etc., and providing for appropriate
sanctions."
He says the 2nd Session of the Meeting
of African Transport Ministers in Luanda, Angola in November 2011
directed that AFCAC establishes an AVSEC W
orking Group to develop mechanisms to
assist States with weak AVSEC to improve, in support of the
implementation of the Abuja Joint Declaration and Road Map on AVSEC
in 2010. The proposed AFCAC AVSEC Research and Development project
the Ministers say should be based at the All African Centre for
Counter-terrorism Studies based in Algiers, Algeria. The Minister
of Aviation in Nigeria, Princess Stella Odua, says she is committed
in working with the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) and the international community in addressing the challenges
to aviation security.
"It is important to say that most
criminal activities committed at airports have direct or indirect
involvement of insider (airport staff)," she says, as she calls for
coordinated efforts to address this challenge.