Oil Tanker Pirated Off Ghana Coast

On June 7th, reports surfaced that a Liberian tanker had gone missing off the coast of Ghana.  The captain had apparently made a distress call reporting that the vessel was being attacked by pirates.  As of today, the ship remains missing; unfortunately, is it likely that it has been pirated and we can only speculate as to the kinds of demands that pirates will make regarding the ship and its crewmembers.

Although piracy has been on the decline off the coast of Somalia, in 2013 the number of piracy attacks rose by one-third off the coast of West Africa, thereby driving up insurance rates and threatening the safety of maritime routes in this region.  The root cause of West African piracy seems to be the uprising in the Nigerian oil-rich Niger Delta, where criminal networks and gangs have blossomed.  West African pirates typically hijack larger ships carrying precious cargo, such as oil.  Attacks have taken place in Nigeria, but also off the coasts of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, undermining the development of West Africa as an oil and gas hub by destabilizing deliveries.  West African pirates seem particularly daring.  In an earlier attack, in January 2014, they attacked a vessel off the coast of Angola and sailed it all the way up to Nigeria.

As I have reported earlier on this blog, the development of West African piracy is a serious concern, as it threatens to destabilize the region and thwart economic development.  Unfortunately, it is questionable whether lessons learning from the global combat against Somali piracy will be of any value, as the two piracy models differ on many levels.  The rise of West African piracy underscores the need for the international community to continue its anti-piracy efforts, despite a decline in Somali piracy attacks.