Piracy Off Gulf of Guinea Worth $500m Annually

……… Zone now beats Somalia coast as world’s maritime piracy hotspot. 

By Chibisi Ohakah, Abuja

A report has said that pirates operating in the Gulf of Guinea, most of who head back to the Nigeria’s Niger Delta has turned the area into the world’s current maritime piracy hotspot, far outpacing the waters off the coast of Somalia and the rest of East Africa.

The rising prices have encouraged the pirates, who largely operate from jungle camps based in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region to be more brazen and venture farther out into the Gulf, the study said.

The new study by Stable Seas, a transnational non-profit, initiative for actionable maritime, security and governance research, also said sea piracy is drawing annually over US$500 million from the countries which line the Gulf of Guinea mostly by locals against non locals working in the region or using the region as transit.

The study said that the kidnappings and ransom takings come in dozens annually, and much of the estimated cost comes from anti-piracy measures that the crimes warrant, than from the value of stolen ships and cargo.

“For every $1 pirates steal or extort from African victims, Gulf of Guinea governments spend around $524 on counter-piracy efforts,” the study said, pointing out that the pirate’s own gains are considerably lower, estimated at only about $5 million a year.

The study also observed that most of the sum are ransoms paid for kidnapped crewmen who are non indigenes from the coastline stated in the Gulf of Guinea.

“Direct losses due to ransoms paid for local hostages and the value of goods and oil stolen at sea probably sum to $1 million to $1.2 million per year. This number is significantly lower than it was a decade ago when oil theft at sea was more common and a greater share of hostages taken by kidnappers was West and Central Africans,” the report said.

The study also observed that pirates have adopted the pull off strategy of ‘quick smash and grab raids,’ which earned the pirates as much as $20million per annum, as against old models that were often complex and difficult to pull off.

For instance, the study stated, pirates have discovered that the more portable human crew – especially foreign crew – can fetch huge sums as ransoms, instead of stealing an entire ship or trying to boost its cumbersome cargo. The pirates therefore choose their targets well before striking.

“Ransoms for non-African seafarers have climbed sharply in recent years, more than doubling from an average of $15,000 per non-African hostage in 2014 to as much as $40,000 per non-African in 2019,” said the report.

Stable Seas equally said in their report that ransom from locals from the Gulf of Guinea, mainly West Africans – Nigerians and Ghanaian fishers and oil workers in particular, have hovered between $3,000 and $4,000, or even as low as between $1,000 and $2,000 per victim.

“Piracy and robbery at sea are no longer concentrated in the waters near the Niger Delta. As we saw in the Western Indian Ocean a decade ago, the threat has spread outward from the shore and pirates are now operating over a vast region extending hundreds of miles from the coast,” Stable Seas says.

According to the transnational non-profit organization, the increased targeting of non-African victims has left the perception around the Gulf that the crime is not an African problem, but a foreign one.

“These low direct costs to African nations have created the perception among some that Gulf of Guinea piracy and armed robbery are greater problems for international shipping companies and foreign seafarers than they are for African nations.

“These crimes happen in Africa, but they do not typically happen to Africa. Gulf of Guinea waters are crime scenes, but Gulf of Guinea nations are not the primary victims,” said Stable Seas in the study.

The report however pointed that the idea of the crime being typically against foreigners is a flawed mentality as the greatest costs are the incalculable opportunity costs associated with these piracy-related expenses.

“For every $1 pirates take from Africans, Gulf of Guinea nations are robbed of around $170 in port fees lost due to decreased shipping activity and another $1,200 in lost import tariffs,” the organization says.

It said that this lost government revenue, totaling an estimated $1.4billion per annum, is as much as double the best estimates of the direct costs of piracy paid by international navies, intergovernmental organizations, and the global marine transportation private sector each year as ransom.