Nigeria and ICC announce ground-breaking antipiracy forum
Overview
In an unprecedented move, Nigeria and the Interregional Coordination Centre for the Implementation of Regional Strategy for Maritime Safety and Security in Central and West Africa (ICC) have announced the formation of a Maritime Collaboration Forum to provide shared awareness and deconfliction of activities in the Gulf of Guinea (GOG-MCF/SHADE). The forum is for all stakeholders, both regional and international.
The SHADE model has already demonstrated its worth as a model for exchange of information between regional and non-regional military forces in countering the Somali piracy threat.
”The establishment of GOG-MCF/SHADE will enable working-level stakeholders from the GoG region and from outside the region to connect and discuss how best to suppress Nigerian piracy. We think this can be a catalyst for non-regional navies to step up and initiate effective maritime law enforcement operations to support regional efforts. Such operations should of course respect Nigeria’s sovereign rights as defined under UNCLOS; in respect of piracy, this is within Nigeria’s territorial waters,” says David Loosley, Secretary General and CEO of BIMCO.
According to Jakob Larsen, BIMCO’s Head of Maritime Safety & Security, even relatively small initiatives could make a big difference in improving security in the region.
“We repeat our call for non-regional stakeholders to actively engage in antipiracy law enforcement in the Gulf of Guinea in support of this important regional initiative. The area in the Gulf of Guinea where pirates operate is small compared to the area dominated by Somali pirates a few years ago. It would only take a small, effective force (estimated two frigates and one maritime patrol aircraft) to provide a credible deterrent as well as an enhanced response capability,” Larsen says.
In the past, BIMCO and other stakeholders have raised concerns certain Nigerian stakeholders have so far not fully committed to the fight against piracy because of the significant moneys flowing from the booming commercial asset protection industry. Commenting on the risk of the GOG-MCF/SHADE becoming just an instrument to restrict international navies’ antipiracy operations and further bolstering the Nigerian protection industry, Larsen says:
“At BIMCO we are confident this initiative really is a paradigm shift in Nigeria’s approach to piracy, but of course the proof is in the pudding. I must say, we are very optimistic.”
“The GOG-MCF/SHADE has great potential and will hopefully also stimulate new solutions like embarkation of law enforcement officials from the GoG region in non-regional naval ships, establishment of mechanisms for handover to regional jurisdictions of suspected pirates, utilisation of available radar data from offshore installations, and so on. There are so many low-hanging fruits just waiting to be picked,” says Larsen.
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Posted:
28 April 2021
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