West Africa becomes the new pirate hot spot as ships fight back in Somalia

24/07/2012

It might seem slightly off the beaten track for The Loadstar to look at piracy, but it can have a significant impact on carriers and shippers, not only in insurance, but also supply chains. And the trends in piracy are shifting away from east Africa and towards west Africa, according to recent figures from the International Maritime Bureau, whose piracy reporting centre has registered a sharp decline in the number of Somali attacks on vessels transiting the Red Sea and ...

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Glen
July 24, 2012 at 8:37 pm
I think you will find that West Africa has seen PCASP presence for a number of years now. Furthermore, there is no ‘suggestion’ that fishing vessels are being used as motherships in West Africa; they are being used! Reports have featured this on more than one occasion.

A problem that has been evident for some time is the lack of reporting of piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea. For various reasons ship operators and some oil companies are reluctant to publicise the attacks. Whatever the fears they have in mind, they do not help the seafaring staff by not providing adequate protection.

It is interesting to note the “changes” in port procedures from Togo recently, and that the legal challenge of being able to stop deployment to an area that now comes under war risk.

Lastly, it should be pointed out that quite often, figures for East Africa do not always feature the myriad dhows that are hijacked by pirates. Indeed, one such case saw a dhow released from pirate control on 13 July. It was then discovered that it had been hijacked around 19 June, but had not appeared on any reporting database.

Reporting incidents is one of the key aspects in the fight against piracy.

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- Gavin van Marle
  July 24, 2012 at 8:57 pm
  Glen,
  
  Thank you for the clarification on several points. Any idea what’s behind the Togolese thinking?
  
  Also agree on your point about accurate reporting; although it seems to me that that extends right through the piracy chain – i.e. the negotiators who arrange ransom payments tend to keep themselves in the dark as to the ultimate recipients of payments for fear they may fall foul of terrorism regulations.
  
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Kim George
August 13, 2012 at 4:13 pm
I find it strange that there is so much effort and documentation about what is being done to reduce the symptom (the piracy) rather than the cause (super trawler overfishing that has left the local fishermen without a livelihood).

The best action to take to totally eradicate the piracy would be to remove the super trawlers – many from Russia, China, Korea … but mostly from the EU.

Are you aware that the EU actually pays the licensing costs direct for some of the African coastlines? It is time for the real cause of this piracy to be addressed… not further militarisation of the area – but allowing local fisheries to exist in a sustainable fashion.

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Jason h
October 15, 2017 at 11:32 pm
What’s stunning is it took so long for shipping companies to arm guards to protect their mega-million dollar investments. If you are better armed and in a higher position on top of a huge ship shooting down at a little skif, terrorist/pirates have no chance.

Sometimes the west acts like a bunch of pussies. Just kill every last pirate until there are no more pirates to kill.

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