Anthony Djaba Sackey, Abigail Dede Sackey, Joseph Elorm Segbefia, Raphael Ofori-Dua Lee, Benjamin Lantei Lamptey, Musah Chantiwuni, Abraham Akwetey Teye, Boaz Kwesi Obu Danquah, Priscilla Akua Afful
The Gulf of Guinea (GoG) region has growingly become the world’s hot spot for maritime piracy and armed robbery attacks despite the ongoing health crises and travel restrictions. The ongoing maritime insecurity situation which precedes the Covid-19 pandemic, was examined against the current economic and occupational challenges faced by the maritime community. These challenges include the implemented Covid-19 travel restrictions and the ongoing effort at implementing Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement –a designed boost to Africa’s industrial campaign and Intra trade amongst African nations. The piracy risk concerns potential sustainable maritime investment, measured against the risk posed to a successful implementation of AfCFTA. The study examines the current security threat in West Africa towards identifying the most appropriate recommendations with an integrated approach to tackling maritime piracy. The insecurity problems that risk the safety of marine operations, property, life, and the environment; ought to be reduced —if not eliminated. The case study approach identifies and investigates current policies and practices regulating maritime security in the region. While the study finds the earlier rising trend of piracy and armed robbery as a measure of inadequacy in security and surveillance, it does acknowledge the enormous legal frameworks and current structures of regional and international corporations that are currently ongoing. The problem of insecurity influences insurance coverage which goes to the cost of shipping. It also alludes to the much recent downward trends of which contributing factors have generated conflicting views amongst industry experts and stakeholders. Piracy response has been reactionary rather than proactive in most instances, as attacks have continued in territorial and offshore areas well into 2021. A lack of effective collaborations will continue to lead to undesirable outcomes. Concerning its visible impact on AfCFTA implementation amid covid-19, there is limited data on the issue. The conclusion highlights efforts directed at furthering the understanding of the impact of covid-19 and maritime insecurity on the maritime trade.
Pa Modou Mboob, Edrissa Jallow
In the last decade and a half, the Gulf of Guinea has become a vital space in the global maritime domain. This has been due to its abundant natural resources, continued discoveries of oil and natural gas, and its importance to international maritime trade. However, its waters have been threatened by various illicit activities that undermine the economies of its states and affect the global trade and energy security of the region’s major energy importers. Under these circumstances, several initiatives have been implemented to combat maritime insecurity in the region, including from states, regional and international organizations. This study examines the involvement of the European Union and the United States of America in implementing strategies in the Gulf of Guinea through instruments of their national power. The paper argues that their impact has not resulted in a significant shift in the approach to maritime security in the region as that of the United Nations Security Council’s Resolutions 2018 and 2039. The fact that the United Nation’s outreach was mainly based on fighting maritime piracy through the adoption of the UNSC resolutions, has skewed the focus on maritime piracy, which set a precedent in the way maritime security is viewed in the region. The findings highlight that while some unilateral steps have been taken, most of the efforts of the key players subject of this study focus on promoting regional cooperation by strengthening the capacities of the Gulf of Guinea states. However, the study concludes that a more coordinated approach, with a broader scope, would be more beneficial in combating the wide range of maritime crimes in the region.
David Nanor, Victor Eyo Assi
The corpus of studies has established that maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) is a complicated issue that involves several political unrests, corruption, and youth unemployment. The mismatch between the fundamental problems driving maritime insecurity in the GoG region and the solutions created by regional organisations has received much concern from contemporary literature analysis. Working in the emerging oil and gas sector, especially for the youth in the GoG, is a dream that must come true at all costs. To these teeming youth, such professions come with much prestige and all the noble rewards applicable to other economic sectors. Failure by policymakers to integrate these teeming youth into the oil and gas industry by state and non-state actors is causing a social problem, eventually leading to piracy and armed robbery activities on the region’s waterways. This paper makes a case for the need to abandon the current approaches that merely seek to address the symptoms of maritime insecurity in the area in favour of a more comprehensive youth intervention program that will address the high percentage of youth unemployment in the region. Reviewing literature aligned with the stated objectives, the study adopted narrative and expository methods using secondary data. The study’s findings revealed, among others, the grave and ongoing threat of piracy, armed robbery, and transnational organised crime in the region, where current approaches cannot adequately address policy outcomes. The study recommends, among others, that it is pertinent to adopt a comprehensive strategy to better integrate young people into the various economic sectors, particularly the oil and gas industry, with an extensive local content development programme to reduce the high unemployment rate, youth restiveness and deter people from engaging in piracy and related maritime crimes.
Elizabeth Chinenyenwa Nwarueze
Regionalism is often presented as antithetical to multilateralism. However, regional pathways have proven to be the most effective approach to addressing maritime security concerns in an interdependent maritime world. Enforcement at sea is therefore structured to reinforce State sovereignty and at the same time, encourage interdependence of States to address the unique threats to security in their regions. Yet, this regional approach reinforces stark disparities in security measures across maritime zones and highlights the power of maritime security challenges of a transboundary nature to weaken region-based responses and render them parochial and ineffective. The overall effect of maritime security concerns evokes the urgent need for global cooperation to address contemporary maritime security issues and inspires a re-assessment of regional enforcement strategies in the Gulf of Guinea. A two-step approach of solving national security concerns and enhancing regional cooperation on trade, for instance, as a catalyst for boosting maritime security within the region, is recommended.
Elsie Amelia Tachie-Menson, Katja Lindsov Jacobsen, Anna Naa Adochoo Mensah, Ransford E.V. Gyampo
There are several challenges to maritime security capacity building in West Africa. One such challenge relates to the prioritisation of some maritime crimes over others. Such background prioritisations inform the provision of capacity building, which is then geared to help combat crimes like piracy, selected by donors, whilst sometimes neglecting other important dangers in the maritime domain including the pervasive burden of illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing as a longstanding concern raised by coastal states in the Gulf of Guinea region. In 2011 and 2012, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for instance, acknowledged only the problem of maritime piracy in Resolutions 2018 and 2039. However, without a holistic appreciation of the various challenges to maritime security and a relatedly broader intervention approach that recognizes challenges beyond piracy, maritime security and the blue economy in West Africa will remain in danger. This article explores the ramifications of matching maritime capacity-building interventions to corresponding and diversely prioritised maritime crimes, as well as issues posed to the regional blue economy and overall state and regional security if security capacity is not addressed more broadly and, in a manner, that takes regional priorities seriously. The Ghanaian situation will serve as a case study. Other Gulf of Guinea states are considered briefly to illustrate the direct and indirect effects of deprioritizing other maritime crimes in the effort to disrupt Gulf of Guinea piracy.
