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Commander of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC), Major General Francis Ofori says the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) has since the late 2000s gained notoriety as the premier hotspot of the world for piracy,
He said the government of Sudan, which stretches from Senegal in West Africa to Angola in Central Africa (covering around 6,000 km of coastline), is also increasingly becoming the world’s leading hotspot for kidnappings and armed robberies at sea.
Major General Ofori noted that in the 2020 report of the International Maritime Bureau (BMI), 195 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships were recorded worldwide.
He said of the 135 crew members kidnapped from their ships in 2020, 130 came from GoG waters, representing more than 95% of crew members kidnapped in 22 separate incidents.
Major General Ofori said this when opening the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Safety Culture Development course at Prampram in the Greater Accra region.
The eight-day program welcomes 21 participants from 10 countries in West and Central Africa; namely Ghana, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon and Congo Brazzaville.
The course, which is the third in the series, is organized by the KAIPTC in collaboration with the Government of Denmark and the Interregional Coordination Center (ICC), and aims to expose participants to current knowledge on maritime safety at GoG.
The pilot course was held in Takoradi, Ghana in October 2020 and received very good feedback.
The second course took place in Cotonou, Benin in November 2020 and together 54 people have seen their capacities enhanced so far.
The current course has been designed with input from maritime security experts from the sub-region and reflects the most current realities on the ground.
Major General Ofori recounted that on January 23, 2021, 15 crew members were kidnapped and one person was killed in a pirate attack on the container ship M / V Mozart (Liberian-flagged vessel) off the coast of Nigeria.
He said the latest statistics indicated that the GoG hackers had honed their abilities and were now launching attacks further from the coast.
“A week after the MV Mozart attack on January 30, 2021, the Marshal Island-flagged MV Rowayton Eagle was attacked about 200 nautical miles (nm) from shore, and similar incidents at sea are not rare. “
Major-General Ofori described the situation as a worrying trend that could only be addressed through increased and shared intelligence, information exchange, coordination between and among ships and response agencies in the GoG region. .
He said the CSI had reported that attacks had been documented in 15 GoG coastal states in the past three years.
“It is clear that no country maritime space is immune. In this sense, having a shared maritime security culture means that maritime actors understand and appreciate the dynamics of maritime insecurity, while working to reduce maritime crime at sea, ”said the commander.
“This is important because we understand that the Somali scenario may not be the same as the one we have at GoG.”
Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Tom Norring, who participated virtually in the meeting, said ensuring maritime security within GoG is a shared responsibility between national, regional and international maritime actors.
He said the government of Denmark is determined to support this program of enhancing maritime security in West Africa through Danish maritime security for the government of Sudan.
Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at KAIPTC, Professor Kwesi Aning said the course would enable participants to research and understand the complexities of maritime security challenges and the obstacles they faced in response to challenges.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (ASP) Peter Kwarteng, the second commander of the Tema Maritime Police, a participant, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said that to address the issue of maritime security in the GoG, it was necessary for countries in the sub-region to share information.
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