The representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for the east Africa regional office, Loide Lungameni, said this after paying a courtesy call on President James Michel at State House yesterday morning.

Ms Lungameni, who represented the United Nations at the two-day symposium which ended on Tuesday, was accompanied to State House by the UN body’s programme manager of the piracy programme Allan Cole, who has been coming here to assess the needs of Seychelles in terms of capacity building and other help for the country in the fight against piracy.

Ms Lungameni said from what she had observed through the symposium and site visits of facilities in place and through the effort being made, she is now better equipped to advocate for more help for Seychelles.

“And I think the government has done very well through this symposium and in spite of having limited resources the government has not spared any effort to facilitate our work,” said Ms Lungameni.

During her meeting with Mr Michel she said she discussed various aspects of the symposium, and these include further help for Seychelles in terms of capacity building needs such as in prison management and administration, construction of the new security wing at the Montagne Posee prison, health needs including HIV/Aids in prison, among other related issues.

She described the symposium as “well organised with very high-level discussions which have achieved much more than Seychelles anticipated”.

“Seychelles is doing a lot with very limited resources and this was further underlined during the symposium and those taking part understood and agreed that this is a shared responsibility for the region and beyond. It needs to be tackled in a concerted effort if we are going to succeed”.

Again she stressed the need for political stability and for the rule of law to be established in Somalia in order to have an end to such crimes like piracy.

She thanked the government of Seychelles for the hospitality accorded to the visitors attending the symposium.
The UNODC regional office for eastern Africa is based in Nairobi, Kenya and it represents 13 countries including Seychelles.