EUNAVFOR MED OPERATION SOPHIA - Operation SOPHIA: a further training module for the Libyan Navy carried out in Italy - Operation Sophia

Last 30 November 2018, at the Italian Navy School in La Maddalena (Italy), a further training module has been concluded in the presence of the Italian Minister of Defence,  Elisabetta Trenta, the Italian Chief of the Navy, Vice Admiral Valter Girardelli, and the Chief of the Libyan Coastguard and Port Security, Commodore Abdalh Toumia. The module, comprising of two different courses titled “Deck Officers” and “Maintainers” over a total duration of eight weeks, was aimed at providing 64 military personnel the knowledge and training required to conduct routine activity on board an off shore patrol vessel with particular lessons focused on Human Rights, Basic First Aid and Gender Policy. Within the wider framework of Training Package 2, the first “Active Training on Gender issues” has been managed by EUNAVFOR MED Operation SOPHIA for Libyan personnel belonging to the Coastguard and the Navy. This course has covered the subject of GENDER, in an active and shared forum, involving five specialists Staff of from EUNAVFOR MED, facilitated by two external experts, and four officers of the Libyan Coastguard and Navy who have attended a previous training module in Rome (Op SOPHIA OHQ). Additionally, one selected Libyan officer of the group, at the end of this module has obtained the qualification of “First level instructor for Gender issue” and, on the morning of November 30 in La Maddalena, he delivered the first lesson on this issue to his colleagues at the Training School. With the positive conclusion of this module, a total of 320 Libyan Coastguard and Navy personnel trained by EUNAVFOR Med has been achieved. Finally, Operation Sophia Staff are coordinating another training module in Split (Croatia), focused on diving techniques for five military divers belonging to the Libyan Navy and Coastguard.

From October 2016, SOPHIA has been fully involved in the training of the Libyan Navy and Coastguard; the aim of the training is to improve security of the Libyan territorial waters and the Libyan Coastguard and Navy ability to perform the duties, including search and rescue activities to save lives at sea.