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CNSC, OMI drill external trade and maritime transport sector players in Douala

About ten days ago, from the 10^th to 11^th March 2019, a fire broke out on board an American boat off La Rochelle, France. Some 365 containers containing nearly 200 tonnes of hydrochloric and sulphuric acid and 2,200 tonnes of heavy fuel oil were lost. The ship was also carrying many delicate materials whose dispersion has adverse consequences on the environment, humans and marine life.

Transporting certain goods and substances is therefore fraught with danger. Consequently, to better season foreign trade sector players in this field, the Cameroon Minister of Transport, Jean-Ernest Ngallè Bibehe opened a four-day training course yesterday 19 March, in Douala. The ongoing national course on the carriage and handling of dangerous goods is jointly organised by the Cameroon National Shippers' Council (CNSC) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

“In fact, container handling by itself is already a dangerous job and the carriage of goods itself is a risky business. Now, there are goods that, by their very nature, are dangerous,”the General Manager of the Cameroon National Shippers' Council Mr. Auguste Mbappe Penda said after the opening ceremony. The course, which opened yesterday and will be conducted by IMO experts, seeks to build the capacity of national actors in an environment where one of the major risks of shipping "undoubtedly lies in the handling and storage of dangerous goods, whose volume is growing by the day,” the Cameroon Minister of Transport said.

Mr. Ngallè Bibehe added that such risks are also "little known" to our foreign trade players, "because of the poor knowledge of standards and references in this area.” These and more are knowledge gaps that the course seeks to bridge with a view to improving the safety and security of transport, and more precisely maritime transport, " as more than 80% of world trade is sea-borne."

According to the Cameroon Minister of Transport, the training is therefore timely, and will educate trainees on the many regulations adopted by the IMO to ensure the safety of navigation and cargo handling operations. Topics to be considered are, inter alia, the use of pesticides in holds and containers; the codification of packaging; refrigeration and conditioning and revised recommendations on the safe handling of dangerous goods in ports and harbour.