Ghana has since 2020 till date, recorded nine pirate attacks in its territorial waters in the Gulf of Guinea, the Ghana Maritime Authority has said.
Six out of the nine incidents took place last year, with three occurrences taken place between January and June 2021. These attacks were mainly on ships transporting bulk petroleum and its products and ships carrying exotic goods.
Though the menace is rapidly increasing in West Africa, the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), told the B&FT that these recorded attacks, actually started from other countries and penetrated into Ghana’s exclusive economic zone. The GMA maintains that it is currently pushing for stricter piracy laws and stiffer punishment for culprits.
Apart from battling piracy in the form of armed robbery, thefts, drug and arms smuggling and human trafficking on its waters, Ghana is also saddled with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which costs the country some US$50 million in losses each year.
As the attention of the world has been diverted to COVID-19, piracy and armed attacks against ships’ crews in the Gulf of Guinea remain a serious problem, requiring a concerted response by the international community at the highest level.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has said West Africa loses US$2.3 billion to maritime crime from 2015 to 2017. Globally, 135 crew were kidnapped from their vessels in 2020, with the Gulf of Guinea accounting for over 95 percent of crew numbers kidnapped, according to the International Chamber of Commerce.
A record 130 crew members were kidnapped in 22 separate incidents. Since 2019, the Gulf of Guinea has experienced an unprecedented rise in the number of multiple crew kidnappings. In the last quarter of 2019 alone, the Gulf of Guinea recorded 39 crew kidnapped in two separate incidents.
Incidents in the Gulf of Guinea are particularly dangerous as over 80 percent of attackers were armed with guns, according to the latest International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau figures.
Conversely, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), is also concerned about the deteriorating security situation in the Gulf of Guinea where there has been a sharp increase in the number of attacks on ships’ crews, many extremely violent, currently accounting for some 90 percent of maritime kidnappings worldwide.
The ICS, has said many of these attacks, previously, had been principally motivated by the intention to steal cargo. However, it maintained that seafarers are now routinely being kidnapped in the Gulf of Guinea and taken into Nigeria where they are then held for ransom in the most appalling and terrifying conditions.
Indeed, Nigeria has recorded some 62 cases of piracy from 2020 till now, with the incidents projected to increase before end of year.
Key measures by the GMA
But the GMA has emphasized that it is closely monitoring the situation and has put in place mechanisms to ward off such threats, in order to reduce pirate attacks in the country’s territorial waters. There are plans underway to establish additional Forward Operating Bases in Aflao and Ezehule in addition to the existing naval bases in Takoradi and Tema.
“We have upgraded our Vessel Traffic Management Information System (VTMIS) or 24 hour surveillance, and building more satellite offices to better monitor vessels that come in and out of the country,” the PR department of GMA, told the B&FT.
The authority is also pushing for a stricter piracy laws for stricter punishment, establishing more naval bases in coastal communities and has acquired additional speed boats to reach the areas of occurrences and intensifying sea patrols particularly at nights.
