An Italian warship, Luigi Rizzo with a crew of soldiers of about 187, has berthed at the Tema Port to engage the Ghana Navy in a collaborative exercise aimed at curbing the growing activities of pirates off the Gulf of Guinea.

According to statistics, piracy off the Gulf of Guinea, shot up to over 200 cases in 2020, with most of these cases being kidnapping and demand for ransom, making the area a haven for pirates.

In view of this, the Italian Navy which has been patrolling and surveilling both the Gulf of Guinea and other waters for months now, have arrived in Ghana, to train personnel of the Ghana Navy in a collaborative effort to curb the growing piracy menace.

The Luigi Rizzo warship with some 187 crew members, will train their Ghanaian counterparts in a midnight drill on the seas, to impart on them, modernized patrolling and surveillance methods used in combating piracy.

Commander Dario Castelli is the commanding officer of the Luigi Rizzo warship.

According to him, there is the need for such a collaboration between Ghana and other African counterparts in this training and mission, which will send a strong signal to the pirates, about their preparedness to combat them.

The Luigi Rizzo warship which has been offering monitoring and surveillance on the Gulf of Guinea for some months now is expected to return to Italy in May after the joint operations.

The Italian Free Gate Warship is also expected to hit the gulf in October to undertake similar monitoring and surveillance exercise.