Gulf of Guinea Piracy and Illegal Fishing: Expensive Crimes for the Neighborhood

Hellenic Shipping News reports Nigeria, Others Lose $2bn to Pirates' Attacks

Annually, Says Naval Chief

The Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas, has revealed that Nigeria and 15 other countries in the Gulf of Guinea are currently losing a sum of $2 billion to pirate attacks annually.

The Naval Chief’s revelation was coming two months after Nigeria was rated as number one in pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea in a report by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).

Ibas also confirmed THISDAY’s exclusive report that Nigeria loses several millions of dollars to illegal fishing and poaching on the nation’s coastal and territorial waters.

THISDAY report here:

Nigeria is losing $600 million annually to illegal and unreported fishing by foreign vessels as a result of lack of equipment such as Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), and adequate manpower to police the country’s vast coastline, THISDAY’s investigation has revealed.

THISDAY gathered that the country also spends $800 million annually on fish importation, being the fourth largest importer of fish in the world, after China, Japan and the United States.
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The document titled, “Fisheries Crime Activities in West Africa Coastal Region,” showed that Nigeria spends about $800 million (N324 billion) to import fish to bridge the supply gap.

According to the document, Nigeria in 2018 imported fish worth $71 million, $56 million, $43 million and $174 million from Iceland, Russia, Norway and Netherlands respectively.

The document also showed that West Africa remains a global hotspot for illegal fishing with estimated losses of $2.9 billion.

The document further revealed that over 450 Chinese vessels fish illegally in Nigeria and the coast of West Africa, adding that, “a survey carried out by the West Africa Task Force showed that over 37 per cent of all fish caught in West Africa are caught illegally with China, Taiwan, Russia, South Korea, Spain, France and Thailand being the main countries responsible.

“This is aside vessels from other countries and artisanal fishing in Nigeria inland water ways in areas such as Badore, Epe and coastal areas in Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers states.”

Nigeria reports it has a project to deal with these issues, Deep Blue Project:

There is hope in the horizon for the high level of insecurity in Nigeria’s waterways as the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has established the Integrated Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure known as Deep Blue Project to drastically reduce criminalities in the Gulf of Guinea.
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He said, “The Deep Blue Project is a multi-pronged approach towards tackling insecurity in our territorial waters and the entire Gulf of Guinea. What we are doing is fulfilling the training aspect of the project and this will also be complemented by acquisition of assets, such as fast intervention vessels, surveillance aircraft, and other facilities, including a command and control centre for data collection and information sharing that will aid our goals of targeted enforcement.”

Wishing them the best of luck with that. The GOG is a huge area.

Nigeria: How Not to Fight Local Pirates and Sea Kidnappers

When local armed criminals take advantage of rules prohibiting their targets from also being armed, you get reports like this Shipping lines at crossroads over private armed guards

As the world’s navies could not control vast area in the high seas to secure all ships

sailing to various ports, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) in 2011 approved an interim guidance to shipowners, ship operators and shipmasters to use privately contracted armed security personnel on board ships transiting the high risk piracy areas in the Gulf of Guinea and other zones in the Gulf of Aden.
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The development made ship owners to pay as much as $60,000 to armed security guards to secure and protect vessels and crew.

For instance in Nigeria, shipping lines claimed that they spent over $200 million annually to protect cargoes and their crew by placing armed guards on board merchant vessels because of the menace of armed robbery in the Niger- Delta area.

However, the Federal Government said last week that such practice would no longer be business as usual for liners sailing on Nigerian waters.

Nigerian coasts have already been labeled as the hotbed of piracy and sea robbery.

The Government said that it was illegal and against Nigerian constitution for private armed guards to operate onboard vessels.

Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, in Lagos, said that there were reasons to be worried about armed guards.

He noted that the private armed guards would not perform their anti-piracy duties in a way that does not escalate violence, involve unlawful use of force or cause international incidents.

Good golly. Why not sent out engraved invitations to the bad guys?

Oh, yes, the Nigerian government plans to offer up some sort of "investment" in security boats and the like to protect those they are looking at removing their protection:

The Managing Director of the authority, Hadiza Bala Usman, said at a stakeholders’ meeting in Apapa, Lagos that the management was considering a number of strategies to check the attacks.

The managing director noted such strategies when reinforced, would bring to book those behind the attacks on vessels berthing at the Lagos Port Complex.

Usman noted that more patrol boats would be acquired to patrol waterfronts.

Good luck with that.

West African Pirates and Kidnappers Still Active, But Enforcement is Catching Up

Report from Africa Times on 8 Feb 2016, "Nigerian Navy thwart hijack" reminds us that, though
there has been a significant decrease in piracy off East Africa, there is still stuff happening off West Africa:

The Nigerian Navy has thwarted an effort by suspected pirates to hijack and capture 25 foreign nationals who were on board a Maersk merchant ship which was carrying cargo to Port Onne, Nigeria. The crew were made up of mixed nationalities eight South Africans, eight Philippines, five Indians, two Thais and two Britons.

The Executive Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder, Olusegun Soyemi, told journalists on Sunday said that the vessel has docked safely and those on board were uninjured, reported Premium Times.

Soyemi told journalists that at eight in the morning on January 5, the ship, Safmarine Kuramo, was attacked by pirates.

“We got may-day distress call that the ship was boarded by unconfirmed number of sea pirates after entering the nation’s territorial waters,” Soyemi said.

“We immediately dispatched a warship (NNS Centenary) and attack gunboats led by Navy Capt. Chiedozie Okehie of the Eastern Naval Command to rescue the situation.

“The sea pirates apparently on sighting advancing naval troops fled the scene for fear of being arrested by our operatives.
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Before this latest event, there was this 3 Feb 2016 report "Nigerian separatists hijack ship, demand release of leader":

Nigerian separatists have hijacked a merchant ship and threatened to blow it up with its foreign crew if authorities do not release a detained leader agitating for a breakaway state of Biafra, military officers said Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Rabe Abubakar, the Defense Ministry spokesman, confirmed the hijacking occurred on Friday and called it “an act of sabotage.” He did not tell reporters the name of the ship.

Abubakar spoke on Monday. Other officers on Tuesday told The Associated Press that the navy is in pursuit of the captured vessel. The officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press, said the hijackers have given the government 31 days to free Kanu or say they will blow up the ship along with its crew.

Maritime industry reports indicated the vessel was an oil tanker seized about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off Nigeria’s Bakassi Peninsula, along Nigeria’s southeastern Atlantic Ocean coastline, near the border with Cameroon.

“The group boarded the tanker from two fast boats and took control over the vessel and locked the crew in the mess room” before heading for the Niger Delta, the Bulgarian-based Maritime News reported.

and

In an apparently unrelated development, pirates seized the Greek-owned chemical tanker MV Leon Dias off Nigeria’s coast, according to an official of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to reporters. He said it was hijacked on Friday, other reports said Sunday, and diverted to an oil terminal off Cotonou, capital of neighboring Benin. Maritime News said the chief officer was seriously injured and is being held hostage with four other seamen.

This latter hijack reported 5 Feb 2016 in Benin Navy guarding Greek tanker, hostages held in Nigeria:

The navy of Benin is guarding an oil tanker hijacked by militants who are holding five crew members hostage in Nigeria, Nigeria’s navy and a shipping security expert said Wednesday.

The Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned MT Leon Dias is anchored off Cotonou, Benin’s commercial capital, Nigerian navy spokesman Commodore Kabir Aliyu told The Associated Press. He gave no details about the crew and hijackers.

The hijackers disembarked from the vessel on Sunday and took five hostages with them — the captain, chief engineer, third engineer, the electrician and a fitter, said Dirk Steffen, maritime security director of Denmark-based Risk Intelligence. The ship then sailed to Cotonou, he told the AP.

Gulf of Guinea Piracy: Nigeria "Pirates kill policeman in Bayelsa"

Daily Post of Nigeria reports, "Pirates kill policeman in Bayelsa":

The Police Command in Bayelsa has confirmed that pirates killed a Mobile Policeman on waterways in Ikebiri, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.
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He said the dead policeman was escorting a barge to Koluama with his colleague when the pirates attacked them.

“Two policemen who were on escort duty on a barge from Port Harcourt to Koluama community in Bayelsa were attacked over the weekend by suspected pirates.

“One was shot dead while the other was badly injured. The policemen involved are not from Bayelsa command.

Reuters reports, "Pirate attacks by heavily armed gangs surge off Nigerian coast":

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Unlike the dangerous waters off Somalia and the Horn of Africa on the east coast of Africa, through which ships now speed with armed guards on board, many vessels have to anchor to do business off West African countries, with little protection.

This makes them a soft target for criminals and jacks up insurance costs.

"Pirates, often heavily armed and violent, are targeting vessels and their crews along the (Nigerian) coast, rivers, anchorages, ports and surrounding waters. In many cases, they ransack the vessels and steal the cargo, usually gas oil," the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported on Thursday.

Countries on the Gulf of Guinea, including Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast, are major sources of oil and cocoa and increasingly metals for world markets.

Nigeria is getting assistance as reported in "Nigeria, UK, US in Joint Exercise Against Piracy, Crude Oil Theft":

A joint multi-national sea exercise tagged "African Winds" aimed at showing readiness to flush out sea pirates, terrorists and crude oil thieves in the Nigerian waters was held at the Lagos Takwa Bay Beach Friday.
The exercise which was jointly carried out by Spain, UK, US, Netherlands and Nigeria, was in line with the objectives of the African Partnership Station (APS) to stamp out maritime illegalities.
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The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Azubuike Ihejirika, while speaking to journalists at the event admitted that the Nigerian Armed Forces approached the war against insurgents on a wrong footing.

Though, he said some achievements had been recorded by the military in the war against insurgents, he added that the Nigerian Armed Forces is re-strategising with a view to tackling all security loopholes in the on-going war against terrorism, piracy, sea robbery and bunkering.
He said: "We went into the operation in the North East without joint deployment training. Nevertheless, I am impressed with level of cooperation so far.

"We have taken concrete measures to improve the level of effectiveness of the operation, such as ground-to-air communication to enable the Nigerian Army and Air force to communicate. This was not there before hand.

"Though, there has been limited success with the operation in the north east, but I hope there will be improvement soon."

Sooner, please.

Gulf of Guinea Pirates: Nigeria Really Does Step Up Efforts

Had a little fun yesterday with a report of Nigerian counter-piracy activity (here), but defenceWeb has a much better look at what Nigeria is up to at "Improved Nigerian maritime surveillance and response cuts crude oil theft and piracy":

Piracy, crude oil theft and other illegal operations in Nigeria’s maritime environment are a major source of revenue leakage and the Nigerian Navy (NN) has put measures in place to ensure this sector of the national economy is properly protected.

In the first seven months of this year it has seized 25 vessels suspected of involvement in crude oil theft and bunkering.

That the Nigerian military has to provide protection to more than 5 700 oil wells, 9 717 km of pipeline, 112 flow stations, 16 gas plants and 126 floating platforms in the country’s maritime environment underscores the need for adequate maritime security a statement said.

The short piece goes on to explain the 3-pronged approach being used by the Nigerian Navy.

Such steps are encouraging. Good on the Nigerians for picking up the challenge.