Securing Africa’s maritime leadership: from policy to action

The policy brief argues that Africa's maritime security efforts are hindered by institutional fragmentation, chronic underfunding, and a gap between high-level policy and operational capacity. It highlights that while regional bodies like SADC and ECOWAS have made progress, the African Union (AU) lacks a permanent coordinating body and a tested naval component for the African Standby Force. To address this, the authors recommend establishing an African Maritime Security Expert Group, convening a permanent Committee of the Heads of African Navies and Coastguards (CHANS), and conducting the AMANI Africa III maritime exercise to validate naval command-and-control.

• The translation of maritime policy into practice has been obstructed by delayed ratifications, incomplete annexes, and the absence of a dedicated African Union (AU) maritime coordination unit, leaving most policies as merely aspirational.
• AU maritime responsibilities are fragmented across three different directorates—Legal Counsel, Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, and Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS)—which results in weak follow-through on Peace and Security Council (PSC) decisions due to the lack of a single coordinating body or predictable budget.
• Maritime threats, including piracy, trafficking, and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, cause local economic collapse and political instability, which in turn threatens trade corridors and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
• There is a significant disparity in regional coordination; the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has a long-standing Standing Maritime Committee, whereas the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is still consolidating its naval platforms, and continental links between these regions remain ad hoc.
• Africa lacks a permanent continental forum for naval leadership and a standing body of naval chiefs to define AU doctrine and training standards, creating a gap between strategic vision and operational capacity.
• The African Standby Force (ASF) remains incomplete because its naval dimensions are underdeveloped, as previous AMANI Africa exercises focused exclusively on land-based operations.

APA

Reva, D., & Walker, T. (2025). Securing Africa’s maritime leadership: from policy to action. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1765521452263-policy-brief-209.pdf

Chicago

Reva, Denys, and Timothy Walker. Securing Africa’s maritime leadership: from policy to action. Institute for Security Studies, 2025. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1765521452263-policy-brief-209.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Reva |first1=Denys |last2=Walker |first2=Timothy |title=Securing Africa’s maritime leadership: from policy to action |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=2025 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1765521452263-policy-brief-209.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{reva2025securing, author = {Reva, Denys and Walker, Timothy}, title = {{Securing Africa’s maritime leadership: from policy to action}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2025}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1765521452263-policy-brief-209.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }