The first ten weeks of 2014 have witnessed the resurgence of maritime kidnap-for-ransom off the coast of Nigeria’s Niger Delta. This distinct form of piracy does not receive the same international attention as does the hijacking and robbery of multi-million dollar tanker cargos, but it poses an omnipresent threat to greater number of mariners.
UN has recently issued a report on the Maritime Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. Piracy in the region has become a growing concern. Much of the piracy that affects West Africa is a product of the disorder that surrounds the regional oil industry.
In the early hours of 18 January 2014 a 75,000-ton tanker, the MT Kerala, vanished off the coast of Angola. A sophisticated pirate gang hijacked the Greek-owned vessel, disabling its identifications system and communication equipment, and painting over its identifying markers.
Recently there is an increased threat of crew kidnap in the Gulf of Guinea with two new attacks on vessels taking place within a single week having also Nigerian-flagged vessels targeted by pirates and kidnapping six crew members.
While piracy attacks seem to be on the decline off the coast of Somalia, pirates may be warming up in West Africa. As I and others have blogged about before, the Gulf of Guinea, as well the Nigerian Delta, have recently turned into hotbeds of piracy. The Nigerian Delta in particular, because of vast amounts of oil production which takes place there annually, has attracted potential pirates interested in seizing oil and selling it for profit on the black market.
There is difference between anti-piracy and counter-piracy. Anti-piracy is about elimination; medium to long-term perspective, strategic, national, regional and international character, in other words it is a ”pipe dream”, cannot be done. Counter- piracy is about containment; short term and medium term, tactical, operational, private, national, regional and international character. This presentation/article is about counter-piracy policies and initiatives. When it comes to East Africa, believe it or not, 99.5% of the funds spent on counter-piracy go to counter-piracy operations.
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Officer of the Watch 