CHEMEX AFRICAThis regional event, designed for CIAC member states in the African region, aims to strengthen countries' response capabilities in the event of a chemical incident.

The OPCW Technical Secretariat and the Government of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria would be conducting a 2-week chemical emergency response capacity-building exercise for the Africa region (CHEMEX Africa), combining a training, a field exercise, and a live demonstration. Organised under the OPCW Africa Programme and funded through a voluntary contribution made by the Government of Canada, CHEMEX Africa is scheduled to take place in Algiers, Algeria from 23 September to 5 October 2023.
The objective of the event is to enhance African States Parties‘ capacities to respond to chemical emergencies, including incidents and attacks perpetrated by non-State actors (chemical terrorism). As part of the event, first responder Teams from ECOWAS1, ECCAS2 and SADC3 will be trained by instructors from EAC4, supported by technical teams from North Africa and Sahel and IGAD5.
States Parties that have been providing technical and financial support to OPCW’s assistance and protection capacity building in Africa (Czech Republic, Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) will provide mentoring and feedback to Instructing Teams throughout the project.
In addition, representatives from Canada, France, the United States and the European Union will be involved as observers.
CHEMEX Africa is expected to strengthen the capacity of African States Parties to respond to and reduce the deleterious effects of chemical incidents/attacks. It falls under the ambit of Article X of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which focuses, inter alia, on assisting States Parties in strengthening national programmes for the development and improvement of a protective capacity against chemical weapons