By Tom Clarke, Maritime kidnap for ransom is a crime deeply rooted and geographically concentrated in the Niger Delta. Like other forms of piracy in the region, it is the product of onshore dysfunction and insecurity coupled with a target-rich environment at sea. The vast majority of piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea go […]
ISO 28007: West African Problems
January 2013 Last month, the International Standards Organization released “ISO 28007”, a new standard of certification for private maritime security contractors who provide on-board security for merchant ships. Some of the logistics, including who exactly the audit inspectors for this certification will be, remain unclear. However, this provides a new and exciting method of certification […]
US eyes anti-piracy effort
The recent spike in piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, off the west coast of Africa, has caused the United States to consider action to combat this kind of crime. Besides the danger to the shipping industry and human life, the U.S. is increasingly worried that gangs of pirates have direct or indirect ties to […]
Increased Threat to West Africa Shipping
While much recent international attention has been paid to hijackings and piracy off the eastern coast of Africa, the continent’s western coast is also infested with pirates. And while there has been some success thwarting criminals near Somali waters, there hasn’t been no such victory against their counterparts in Nigeria. The Gulf of Guinea has […]