Nigeria and Cameroon Friday signed a Bilateral Agreement on Technical Aeronautical Search and Rescue Operations, to strengthen aviation safety cooperation across their shared airspace.
Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, and his Cameroonian counterpart, Minister of Transport Jean Ernest NgalNgallé Bibehe held talks in Yaoundé Cameroon’s capital, on Friday, after which they signed the accord.
Keyamo revealed this on Saturday via his official X account, saying “yesterday, I led a high-level Nigerian delegation to Yaoundé, Cameroon to meet my Cameroonian counterpart, the Minister of Transport, Jean Ernest NgalNgallé Bibehe, to formally sign the Bilateral Agreement on Technical Aeronautical Search and Rescue Operations.
According to the minister, “this agreement between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroon enhances airspace safety by enabling faster and more coordinated responses to aviation emergencies across our shared borders.”
The Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, and key directors from the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development were part of the delegation.
The minister explained that the choice of the delegation was deliberate, saying it was aimed at ensuring a “unified approach to implementation” from the outset.
The accord has a framework that enables technical cooperation between both countries in the event of aviation emergencies occurring in or near their shared border regions.
The agreement was against the backdrop of the incident recently after a Nigerian Air Force C-130 aircraft made an emergency landing in Burkina Faso following a mid-flight technical fault, as a result of which the crew and passengers; 11 military personnel in total, were detained for nine days by Burkinabe authorities.
The Burkinabe who accused Nigeria of entering their airspace without clearance, subsequently released the Nigerians after diplomatic intervention by Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar on President Tinubu’s orders.
