Piracy and Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea: Trends, Concerns, and Propositions

The outbreak of piracy off the coast of the Gulf of Guinea has long been overshadowed by Somali piracy, which has seized the attention of the international community in recent years. With the number of recent incidents of piracy in the region overtaking the number of attacks in the Horn of Africa, this article examines the dynamics of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea in the last two decades. It finds that between 1991 and 2012, a total of 734 pirate attacks took place in the region, with Nigeria alone accounting for 335 (46 percent) of the cases. Recent pirate attacks involve the theft of fuel cargo, which is resold in the black market. In this light, the article further interrogates the escalation and modus operandi of “oil piracy,” showing that it is a well-organized crime that generally follows a process that involves eight stages. The article also highlights the “hard” security concerns and propositions raised by growing piracy in the region: energy security, potential terrorism financing, and escalating insurance premiums. It makes necessary recommendations and concludes that cooperative security measures will be critical in the short term to roll back the expansion of piracy, but a long-term solution requires addressing bad governance across Gulf of Guinea states, with piracy representing only a symptom of deeper malaise.