The year 2020 has proved to be a critical year also on the maritime security front, namely in West Africa. Indeed, the Annual IMB ICC Report for 2020 shows a 40% increase in the number of kidnappings reported in the Gulf of Guinea in the first nine months of 2020 compared with the same period in…
On 16 November, pirates kidnapped five Ghanaians from the cargo ship AM DELTA, 35 nautical miles from the Agbano terminals in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. According to initial investigations, six or seven pirates boarded the Ghanaian ship 44 nautical miles from South Brass. This is the 9th such incident in November alone. Including…
In these times when the global threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic has triggered dire consequences for whole societies and nations, the maritime industry is playing an essential role in the response. In view of this, it is important to allow maritime trade to continue and that world’s ports remain open. The European Union reacted…
The in-depth analysis elaborated by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) was divulgated at the occasion of the High-Level Conference on Oceans that took place in Brussels on 19 March 2019. The paper addresses the most pressing challenges in relation to maritime security: piracy and armed robbery at sea. Africa is particularly vulnerable to these…
At the closing ceremony for the first GoGIN In-Crisis Communication Course for English speaking countries at the Regional Maritime University (RMU), in Accra, the European Union Ambassador to Ghana, Ms. Diana Acconcia stressed how much maritime governance is needed to improve the blue economy as well as coordination of efforts to fight maritime insecurity and…
On 15 December, a merchant vessel was attacked off the city of Brass, located in the southern Nigerian state of Bayelsa. In 2018, Nigeria experienced an increase in piracy attacks, particularly off the Niger Delta, source to offshore oil production. The latest report of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recorded that of the 57 attacks…
In the latest report by International Maritime Bureau (IMB) on piracy incidents, 156 incidents were globally reported in the first nine months of 2018. The Gulf of Guinea alone accounts for 57 of the 156 reported incidents. Most of these incidents have been reported in and around Nigeria (41), but there has also been a noticeable…
On behalf of DG DEVCO B5 the CRIMSON project organised on 21 June, in Brussels, the presentation of the Report ‘’EU Maritime Security Programming: a mapping and technical review of past and present EU initiatives’’. The study, developed in the framework of CRIMSON, aimed to acquire information on past and existing EU and non-EU initiatives…
The Ocean Beyond Piracy Report 2017 has been released on 23 May 2018 and offers a comprehensive assessment of the economic and human costs of piracy in East Africa, West Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. The Report shows that, despite the actions taken to counter piracy, it still poses a serious threat…
