The shipping industry unites in effort to end piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf of Guinea.
The government of Nigeria, the navy and maritime safety agency NIMASA will work, in a joint effort, with the International Chamber of Shipping, Bimco, Intertanko, Intercargo and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) to eliminate the threat of piracy, armed robbery, and kidnapping in the Gulf of Guinea.
The strategy establishes a mechanism to periodically assess the effectiveness of country-piracy initiatives and commitments in the Gulf of Guinea. Targeted at all stakeholders operating in the region, it will identify areas of improvement and reinforcement in order to eliminate piracy.
In May, the UN Security Council condemned the GoG as the world’s piracy hotspot. Despite the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center tracking an overall drop in global piracy during 2021, threat levels in the region remain high.
Piracy activity in the Gulf of Guinea has posed a severe threat to seafarers and local communities for over a decade.
In 2020, 40 percent of piracy attacks, and 95 percent of crew kidnappings occurred in the region. However, attacks decreased by nearly 60 percent in 2021, following the establishment of Deep Blue, the Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Maritime Safety Agency (NIMASA) anti-piracy project, and increased international counter-piracy operations in the GoG.
“The strategy is already identifying successes and areas in which further improvement will continue to reduce the capability of pirates to attack innocent seafarers in the region”, as commented by Mr Guy Platten, the secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping.
Source: International Chamber of Shipping
