Force Commander Meets EU Naval Force Dutch Protection Team

On June 5 in the morning, EUNAVFOR Force Commander Rear Admiral Dupuis and members of his staff met the Dutch Autonomous Vessel Protection Detachment (AVPD), which is deployed on board World Food Programme chartered M/V Caroline Scan. After leaving Djibouti the day before, French flag ship Marne began her patrol in the Gulf of Aden and sailed to a rendezvous point with Caroline Scan off Berbera on the northern coast of Somalia.

Rear Admiral Jean-Baptiste Dupuis (F), Dutch marines

The Dutch AVPD protects much needed food shipments to Somalia by M/V Caroline Scan, which is chartered by WFP. As it is autonomous, the team allows EUNAVFOR more flexibility in the use of navy ships, while security of WFP shipments is guaranteed.

Caroline Scan performs regular rotations for WFP from Mombasa (Kenya) and Mogadishu to Bossaso and Berbera on the northern coast of Somalia, generally carrying from 4,000 to 6,000 tons of food. This one-hour meeting allowed the Force Commander and his staff to better understand the daily life of the Dutch team and to exchange on the current situation.

MV Caroline Scan

The protection of WFP chartered vessels one of the priority tasks of Operation Atalanta. Since the beginning of the operation, more than 900,000 tons of food were sent to Somalia under the protection of EUNAVFOR Atalanta.

(EUNAVFOR, 12 June 2012)