West Africa Pirates: French tanker, 17 crew grabbed off Ivory Coast

Reported as Pirates seize French tanker, 17 crew off Ivory Coast

Suspected Nigerian pirates have hijacked a French-owned Luxembourg-flagged tanker along with its 17-member crew off Ivory Coast, Ivorian officials and the International Maritime Bureau said on Monday.

The Gulf of Guinea area is second only to the waters off Somalia for piracy and there has been a spate of violent attacks in vessels in recent days, prompting the bureau to issue a security alert for the region.

Gascogne

The Gascogne was the second vessel to be seized off Ivory Coast in less than three weeks and the first to have been taken so far from shore.

ShipSpotting.com

© Victor Cadelina, Jr.

From the ICC IMB Live Piracy Map, a couple of images of the location of this most recent attack (Map1) and the Gulf of Guinea attack this far in 2013 (Map 2):

Map 1

Map 2

An interesting comparison of West African pirates to those operating off East Africa (read Somalia) at West African piracy: different but the same…. which links to :

Reports from East African (Somali) piracy hijackings typically describe hostage situations lasting for long periods of time to negotiate ransom. One rarely hears about attempts to monetize the ship’s cargo. West African pirates, however, often target oil tankers—both to seek ransom and to discharge the liquid cargo for black-market sale. While successful capture may take days instead of months, pirates reportedly engage in more gratuitous violence while forcing crews to cooperate in vessel movement and product discharge against their will.

While government structures are stronger in West Africa compared to East Africa, alleged government and commercial corruption provide intelligence to pirates while inadequate counter-piracy laws complicate prosecution. Insufficient regional cooperation among Nigeria, Togo and Benin thwart interdiction of pirates in multi-jurisdictional waters. Since hijackings take place both within national territorial waters and beyond, the legal distinction between armed robbery and piracy complicates prosecution, too. West African piracy more resembles transnational organized crime with more sophisticated vessels and weapons compared to that of East Africa.

Another Hot Spot: Ivory Coast

More trouble in the world, this time in the Ivory Coast.

You might have missed the story what with the Japanese tsunami and the Libya thing. A bit of background - this burgeoning civil war is related to event from years ago:

Ivory Coast was split in two after an armed rebellion in 2002. A halting peace deal in 2007 led to a unity government with Gbagbo as president and northern rebel leader Guillaume Soro as prime minister. After years of delay, the presidential election finally was conducted in November.

Now,

Gbagbo refused to step down after he was declared the loser in a United Nations-certified election last year. Winner Alassane Ouattara refuses to take part in any compromise unity government that includes his opponent, making a peaceful solution elusive.

Rinaldo Depagne, an analyst with the International Crisis Group think tank, said it was difficult to see a resolution because of the distrust between Gbagbo and Ouattara.
***

Red arrow points to Ivory Coast

More than 300 people have died in violence since the balloting, but recent fighting in the commercial capital, Abidjan, and the west of the country broke a six-year cease-fire and marked the apparent failure of the African Union's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the election standoff.

There are 12,000 UN "peacekeepers" in the Ivory Coast, doing goodness knows what:

Currently deployed (31 January 2011)

• 9,024 total uniformed personnel including
  • 7,578 troops;
  • 176 military observer;
  • 1,270 police
• 389 international civilian personnel, 737 local staff and 255 United Nations Volunteers*

Things seem to be picking up a bit - volunteers are signing up for service in the "Ivory Coast Army" as set out here:

The fighting has led some 90,000 people to cross into neighbouring Liberia, the UN refugee agency says.

UNHCR head Antonio Guterres said the conflict could affect countries across West Africa.

"The risks of destabilising the region are enormous," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He pointed out that Liberia was a poor country recovering from its own civil war and said hundreds of other refugees had also crossed into Ghana.

 "Destabalising the region?" That is not a good thing.

 These times remind me of that old song, "The Merry Minuet"

They're rioting in Africa. There's strife in Iran. What nature doesn't do to us... will be done by our fellow man.