Spate of West Africa piracy attacks raises red flags

Piracy along Africa’s West Coast is becoming a growing concern following a spate of attacks on cargo ships in recent months. According to Professor Henri Fouché from the Department of Criminology and Security Science at Unisa, piracy along Africa’s West Coast is definitely on the rise. “In the first six months of this year, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recorded 17 pirate attacks in Nigerian waters alone – a significant increase on 2011,” he said. “While piracy on the east coast of Africa is definitely down, the same can not be said for the west coast where we believe the figures are not only rising, but they are also under-reported resulting in us not having a clear picture of what is going on.” He said what made the West African piracy such a major concern was that it was a completely different method of operation to the East where vessels are targeted and hijacked for ransom purposes. “On the east coast the vessel, its crew and cargo are held for ransom and then released once the money is paid to the pirates. On the west coast, however, the vessels are targeted specifically for the cargo. So not only is the crew expendable, but the cargo is gone when the vessel is finally tracked down and found.” Fouché said in West Africa vessels just seemed to disappear off the radar for several days before being found without the cargo. “The myriad small inlets and rivers makes it easy for pirates to make a vessel disappear. They also have a much quicker turnaround time. On the east coast vessels are held for months, on the west coast only a few days. Once they have the cargo, they don’t care about the ship anymore. Or the crew for that matter.” He said for this reason they were seeing an increase in injuries along the west coast, as these pirates had no need for crew. “If the crew is in their way they shoot to kill. They don’t want hostages possibly because they have nowhere to keep them for months on end – unlike Somalia where there is no criminal justice system.” According to the IMB, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has in many ways been overshadowed by Somali piracy in recent years. Worldwide this year pirates killed at least six crew and took 448 seafarers hostage. The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre recorded that 125 vessels were boarded, 24 hijacked and 26 fired upon. In addition, 58 attempted attacks were reported. In a statement the centre said the number of ships signalling attacks by Somali pirates had fallen this year to its lowest since 2009, but seafarers should “remain vigilant in the high-risk waters around Somalia, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Meanwhile, violent attacks and hijackings are spreading in the Gulf of Guinea”. CAPTION Piracy figures rising on the west coast.