Captain Noah Isa Amwe from RMRCC Lagos in Nigeria has been named the winner of this year’s IMRF People’s Choice Award.

The winner was announced at the second part of the IMRF’s European Regional Meeting, which was held virtually on 10 November 2022. 

Captain Amwe was responsible for leading a number of SAR operations over the last year in difficult circumstances with both professionalism and courage. He took a leading role in the SAR mission following the FPSO Trinity Spirit explosion in February 2022, saving four lives, as well as assisting in a recovery effort to save five stowaways in Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone. He also took part in operations that saved five Indian sailors onboard M/V Marco and 13 crew members onboard MV Sunny in April 2022.

He has also led training programmes for maritime SAR operations in Nigeria, contributing to the training of maritime SAR organisations in the Gulf of Guinea and the wider West Africa region.

“Captain Amwe is a distinguished and very worthy winner of this year’s IMRF People’s Choice Award for his ongoing contribution to maritime SAR. I want to congratulate him and all of our finalists in this year’s awards. Every year the nominations we get for the IMRF Awards are just the tip of the iceberg, representing all the people of all the SAR organisations around the world. It is a testament to the global SAR family that we have such amazing people to recognise each and every year,” said Theresa Crossley, CEO of the IMRF.

Captain Amwe was up against nine other incredible nominees for this year’s awards. You can find out more about all of this year’s winners and nominees here.

“I would like to thank everyone involved in this year’s awards – the amazing nominees, the judging panel, the sponsors and everyone who voted for the People’s Choice Award. It is so important that we continue to raise public awareness of the incredible, selfless work undertaken by SAR personnel around the world.  We owe them all a huge debt of gratitude and respect,” said Theresa.