Tag: Gulf of Guinea

The ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) is urging ships and crew transiting the Gulf of Guinea to remain alert and not let their guard down.

An unidentified offahore supply vessel was boarded while at 208 nautical miles South of Lagos. All crew are reportedly mustered in the citadel, according to maritime security intelligence firm Dryad Global.

A total of 15 crew members were kidnapped from the Maltese-flagged tanker MT DAVIDE B, after the vessel was boarded by 9 armed individuals off Benin, in the Gulf of Guinea. 

Nigeria will commission $195 million worth of aircraft, boats and vehicles during the next three months, aiming to improve security in the Gulf of Guinea, as Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi informed.

British security intelligence firm Dryad Global issued its annual report for 2020, providing an overview of piracy trends worldwide. The report reveals that robberies are the most prevalent incident type in West Africa, but kidnapping incidents remain unacceptably high in Gulf of Guinea. Meanwhile, incidents in Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia remain low. 

It is known that the Gulf of Guinea remains a hotspot for piracy incidents, as the latest IMB Piracy Annual Report revealed. To remind, 35 crew were kidnapped from their vessels in 2020, with the GoG accounting for over than 95% of crew kidnap numbers. Amid this crew kidnapping crisis that shipping industry is dealing with, speakers at the 2021 SAFETY4SEA Talk on security, discussed about key anti-piracy measures and the security challenges for the operators.

In a circular letter to all IMO member states and shipping organizations, the IMO Secretary-General expressed his deep concern about the escalation in the number and severity of attacks in the Gulf of Guinea region and highlighted the need for ships to implement the measures in BMP West Africa.

Mr Pierre Morcos from CSIS ( Center for Strategic & International Studies) mentions that a vast maritime zone of 2.3 million square kilometers and 5700 kilometers of coastline with considerable economic wealth, the Gulf of Guinea has recently been plagued by a succession of acts of piracy, making this maritime space one of the most dangerous and unstable in the world.

In light of the recent increase of pirate activity in the Gulf of Guinea and in the waters under Gabonese jurisdiction, the Gabonese Authorities decided to raise the ISPS Security Level for Gabonese waters and ports from MARSEC Level 1 to MARSEC Level 2, until further notice.

European shipowners (ECSA) welcomed the EU’s political commitment to a first pilot of the new Coordinated Maritime Presences (CMP) concept in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa, but cautions that the situation remains precarious for European and international merchant vessels and more needs to be done urgently.