President Bola Tinubu will formally activate the African Union Combined Maritime Task Force at a ceremony in Lagos, operationalizing a standing multilateral naval force established to combat piracy, illegal fishing, and transnational maritime crime across the Gulf of Guinea’s 6,000-kilometre expanse, the Chief of Naval Staff announced ahead of the Nigerian Navy’s 70th anniversary celebrations.

The task force, formally endorsed by the African Union Peace and Security Council in April 2025, is headquartered in Lagos and brings together naval forces from Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in a coordinated regional response to maritime threats that no single country can address effectively alone. The president’s flag-off will symbolize the force’s formal operational status.

The anniversary celebrations will include an international fleet review at the Eko Atlantic Waterfront in Lagos, to be presided over by the president, who will also conduct the trooping and presentation of colours to the Nigerian Navy. Three new vessels will be commissioned into the service during the ceremony. An international maritime exhibition will follow at the same venue.

More than 39 navies are expected to participate alongside heads of regional and multilateral institutions and diplomats. Friendly naval vessels from Benin, Brazil, Cameroon, and Ghana will operate within Lagos Harbour, and the celebrations will include heads of African navies from 15 countries, heads of non-African navies from 10 countries, and heads of three regional military commands.

The Chief of Naval Staff noted that the Nigerian Navy had grown from an initial complement of approximately 250 personnel at its founding to one of the largest maritime fleets on the African continent, and identified the development of local vessel and shipbuilding capabilities as among the most significant achievements of the past seven decades.