First airport security crisis management table exercise in Garoua.
The Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority organized the simulation of an act of unlawful interference at this international airport on December 15, 2018 in order to test and evaluate the skills of local authorities and operational actors called upon to intervene in the resolution of civil aviation security crises likely to occur there.
Dubbed Bénoué 1, this table exercise focused on the occurrence of an act of sabotage perpetrated on airport facilities.
It was therefore based on ten successive events held in a hall to assess the ability of the various security actors to organize an exercise, trigger alerts, put in place organs and crisis management bodies. (Crisis Operational Command, Executive Crisis Command, Negotiators, Airport Operational Units and Supporting Agencies ...), responsible for putting in place conservative measures and to trigger and lead the response.
In order to cope with the threats of terrorist organizations whose target is civil aviation, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) through Standard 5.1.4 of Annex 17 requires Member States to develop contingency plans for each airport and test them regularly.
In her efforts to meet this requirement, Cameroon has so far organized crisis exercises in 1989, 2010 and 2018 at Douala International Airport and in 2008, 2011 and 2017 at Yaoundé International Airport.
It should be noted that this table exercise was managed by the Governor of the Northern Region, Mr. ABATE EDI'I who had at his side Madam Director General of the CCAA Mrs. AVOMO ASSOUMOU Paule KOKI and all other local actors involved in security crisis management.
At the end, the Governor "expressed his satisfaction with the initiative and invited all stakeholders to align with standards and requirements on the Garoua airport platform so that it can fully play its role of international airport". He also wished that a full-fledged exercise be organized soon on the site in order to advance to the practical phase of this exercise.
