Ambassador Jessica Lapenn, U.S. Ambassador to the African Union and U.S. Senior Coordinator for Atlantic Cooperation, was recently received by the Executive Director and the Head of Operations of MAOC-N at its headquarters in Lisbon.
Ambassador Lapenn was briefed on some of the Centre’s past and current operations, with a particular focus on the vulnerabilities of the Gulf of Guinea and the consequent emergence of new maritime drug trafficking routes and criminal activity hubs in that area.
The United States has been a key strategic partner of MAOC-N since the Centre’s inception in 2007, having contributed with valuable intelligence and assets in operations coordinated through it.
