Nigeria, Cameroon sign pact for cross-border aviation rescue

Abdullateef Fowewe

Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, has signed a Bilateral Agreement on Technical Aeronautical Search and Rescue Operations with Cameroon’s Minister of Transport, Jean Ernest NgalNgallé Bibehe.

In a post on X on Saturday, Keyamo detailed the milestone, “Yesterday, I led a high-level Nigerian delegation to Yaoundé, Cameroon to meet my Cameroonian counterpart to formally sign the Bilateral Agreement on Technical Aeronautical Search and Rescue Operations.”

The pact bolsters airspace safety along the two nations’ 1,700-km shared border by enabling faster, coordinated responses to aviation emergencies. Keyamo emphasised its impact, “This agreement enhances airspace safety by enabling faster and more coordinated responses to aviation emergencies across our shared borders.”

Accompanying Keyamo were the Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and key Ministry directors.

“I was accompanied by them, ensuring a unified approach to implementation,” he added.

The deal addresses longstanding coordination gaps exposed by incidents like the 2018 Nigerian flight crashes.

Video footage from the event captures the delegation’s arrival, negotiations, and signing ceremony, highlighting Nigeria’s drive for ICAO-compliant standards.

This comes as West African air traffic is projected to double by 2030, according to IATA data.