The Chief of Training and Operations, Naval Headquarters Rear Adm. Adeniyi Osinowo has suggested zonal, regional and inter-regional collaboration among West and Central African countries to reduce piracy.
Osinowo made the suggestion in a paper entitled; “Combating the Menace of Piracy and other Maritime Crimes in Africa’’, presented at the Association of Africa Maritime Administrations (AAMA) Conferenc, which ended in Abuja last weekend.
He said between 2003 and 2016, Somalia recorded 539 pirate attacks on vessels, while the Gulf of Aden/Red Sea recorded 381 attacks.
The navy chief said Equatorial Guinea and Congo recorded one incident of pirate attacks each in the period under review.
According to him, between January 2016 and February 2017, reported attacks on vessels in Nigerian water were 83 out of which 47 attacks were successful.
Osinowo added that there should be inter-agency coordination at national level as well as a sustainable database management on piracy.
“Piracy begins and ends ashore. There should be preventive strategy based on identification of vessels and persons of interest.
“There should also be inter-agency coordination at the national level. Maritime Administrations (MARADs) have important role to play in information sharing.
“There should be political will to domesticate anti-piracy law and come up with effective prosecution process“, the navy chief said.
He said maritime crimes included money laundering, illegal arms and drug trafficking, piracy and armed robbery at sea and crude oil theft.
According to Osinowo, other crimes are: maritime terrorism, human trafficking and smuggling by sea, illegal unregulated, unreported fishing (IUUF) and environmental crimes.
Discussion about this post