Montenegrin Maritime Protection Team Carries Out Casualty Evacuation Exercise Aboard World Food Programme Vessel MV Esbjerg

EU NAVFOR’s highly trained Montenegrin maritime protection team are currently deployed on board the World Food Programme (WFP) vessel, MV Esbjerg, to protect its valuable humanitarian aid cargo from any potential pirate attack as it sails close to the coast to deliver much-needed food to the people of Somalia.

In order to ensure that the protection team remains fully prepared to deal with any incident at sea, training exercises are carried out on a regular basis.

During a recent transit along the coast, the Montenegrin team and the ship’s crew carried out a casualty evacuation exercise. The exercise scenario involved moving an injured team member from the upper deck down to the medical team inside the ship as quickly as possible, whilst the rest of the protection team ‘secured’ the upper deck to prevent an attack.

Training such as this is a key part of the embarked team’s routine. They also carry out live firing, safety of life at sea and fire-fighting drills. If a fire was to break out on board it would be the ship’s crew and protection team who would have to fight the fire to keep the ship safe.

Since EU NAVFOR started the protection of WFP vessels in 2009 100% of the humanitarian aid cargo has arrived safely in port, with over 1.3 million tonnes being delivered to the people of Somalia.