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AU AIM Strategy and the Fragmentation of IUU Fishing Regulations in Africa: the Case of West Africa


In Africa, the west suffers the most from Illegal, Unreported, and unregulated fishing which necessitated national, regional, and continental efforts to put in place legal mechanisms to halt the situation. This resulted in the fragmentation of rules dealing with IUU, with AU’s 2050 African Maritime Strategy and the Lomé Charter being the grand Continental ones. This article will provide a brief assessment of the legal mechanisms of the African Union vis-à-vis the rules of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the fragmentation or harmonization of those rules. The paper argues that fragmentation of rules at regional and sub-regional levels is not necessarily counterproductive as long as all parties coordinate by focusing on filling existing gaps rather than allowing overlaps.