On Friday, April 30, 2021, in Yaounde, Cameroon’s National Civil Aviation Security Committee (NSC) held its first meeting for the 2021 financial year, chaired by Minister of Transport Jean Ernest Masséna Ngalle Bibehe, in the presence of different security actors and several guests.

The meeting focused on security matters at Cameroon airports, follow-up of last session recommendations and the draft of the country’s National Civil Aviation Security Programme (NCASP) was presented.

It is crucial that the Cameroonian sky be always safer and more secure on the eve of the security audit scheduled this year 2021 by ICAO and prior to the African Cup of Nations in 2022, which will be held in our country.

The Minister of Transport thus urged all the administrations on the platforms to cooperate and to be duty-conscious in carrying out their missions in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, everyone must put their hands together in order to face the challenges ahead. Cameroon must continuously comply with international regulations despite the slowdown in traffic and activities in the aviation sector.

This is why some amendments to Annex 17 to the Convention on Civil Aviation, which were enforced since the last audit, as well as the recommendations of the confidential ICAO report aimed at bridging the gaps identified during the audit, and need to be integrated into national regulations.

It was highly appreciated that no major incident was reported at our airports. Security measures are implemented on a daily basis in the field through several actions, such as the system of identification of persons and vehicles in restricted areas, the access control of persons and vehicles through screening and the strengthening of the screening of passengers and their cabin baggage by the canine brigade.

Also, an innovation was recorded in the international airports of Yaounde and Douala, namely the integration of artificial intelligence software for the screening of prohibited items in the cabin.

After fruitful exchanges on the various items on the agenda, and on other current issues affecting Civil Aviation, several recommendations were made to improve the security system and working groups will be set up for the evolution of the NCASP draft project