Turkey will lead the command of Joint Task Force CTF-151 to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden, along the coast of Somaliland in the Red Sea and off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean.
The Turkish Ministry of Defense said in a statement, on Saturday, that it would take charge of the joint mission, which began on 25 June and will be extended to 10 December, 2020.
The statement said that the joint mission forces include 13 elements from the United States, Brazil, Bahrain, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait and Pakistan And Oman, adding that the Turkish navy would send a frigate to the Gulf of Aden next September.
The Turkish navy has since February 25, 2009 participated in the Joint International Task Force to Combat Piracy in the region, leading it five times.
The Combined Maritime Forces, a multinational coalition established in February 2002, aims to enhance security, by combating piracy and terrorism in the waters of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
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The coalition covers the security of the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean.
Somalia’s territorial waters is subject to being to one of the largest illegal fishing operations in the world, depleting the domestic food supplies of a country where 15 million people are experiencing threats to food security, including a locust plague, droughts which have caused flash floods, as well as Covid-19.
According to the UN, an estimated 2.7 million people are facing crisis levels of food insecurity in the impoverished Horn of Africa country, while a further 2.9 million are food stressed.
