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Piracy: U.S. Assists Overmatched Navy
- By Williams Ekanem
- Published April 6th, 2010
- Washington File
- Unrated
AS Nigeria coastlines get more dangerous with increased activities of pirates, the Nigerian Navy is said to be having difficulties contending the fire power of the pirates even with help from the U.S. Navy.
Reports say The U.S. Navy has been training naval forces of West African nations to fight piracy, even though much of the world’s attention remains focused on Somali pirates operating off East Africa.
Commodore David Nabaida, a spokesman for the Nigerian navy, said the navy will continue to patrol off of the Niger Delta and Lagos. He said it is difficult to protect the more than 200 ships anchored in Lagos and questioned whether freighters were actually being robbed.
“Maybe ships do deals and sell their products, then say they were attacked by pirates so they can divert attention from whatever crooked deals they have done,” he said.
“The Western African coast, especially around Nigeria, is a high risk area for piracy,” said Cyrus Mody, a manager at the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy worldwide. “It is also one of the most violent places.”
The bureau reported 28 attacks off Nigeria during 2009 and believes at least another 30 pirate attacks went unreported, either due to companies worried about having higher insurance premiums or concerns about advertising their security weaknesses, Mody said.
He added that attacks have occurred elsewhere along the Gulf of Guinea that Nigeria shares with more than a half-dozen other countries. On Saturday, armed pirates off Cameroon’s coast near Nigeria kidnapped two sailors from a Ghanaian-flagged ship for ransom. In another attack in November near neighboring Benin by suspected Nigerian pirates, a Ukrainian sailor was shot dead. In other boardings, pirates stabbed and beat sailors.
“The coastline of Africa’s most populous country is a target-rich environment. Barges and other vessels belonging to energy companies crowd the waters off the Niger Delta, one of America’s top sources of crude oil. At night off the megacity of Lagos, lights from scores of cargo ships twinkle like an archipelago as crews wait for weeks to unload at the city’s busy, mismanaged port,” the report stated.
Reports say The U.S. Navy has been training naval forces of West African nations to fight piracy, even though much of the world’s attention remains focused on Somali pirates operating off East Africa.
Commodore David Nabaida, a spokesman for the Nigerian navy, said the navy will continue to patrol off of the Niger Delta and Lagos. He said it is difficult to protect the more than 200 ships anchored in Lagos and questioned whether freighters were actually being robbed.
“Maybe ships do deals and sell their products, then say they were attacked by pirates so they can divert attention from whatever crooked deals they have done,” he said.
“The Western African coast, especially around Nigeria, is a high risk area for piracy,” said Cyrus Mody, a manager at the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy worldwide. “It is also one of the most violent places.”
The bureau reported 28 attacks off Nigeria during 2009 and believes at least another 30 pirate attacks went unreported, either due to companies worried about having higher insurance premiums or concerns about advertising their security weaknesses, Mody said.
He added that attacks have occurred elsewhere along the Gulf of Guinea that Nigeria shares with more than a half-dozen other countries. On Saturday, armed pirates off Cameroon’s coast near Nigeria kidnapped two sailors from a Ghanaian-flagged ship for ransom. In another attack in November near neighboring Benin by suspected Nigerian pirates, a Ukrainian sailor was shot dead. In other boardings, pirates stabbed and beat sailors.
“The coastline of Africa’s most populous country is a target-rich environment. Barges and other vessels belonging to energy companies crowd the waters off the Niger Delta, one of America’s top sources of crude oil. At night off the megacity of Lagos, lights from scores of cargo ships twinkle like an archipelago as crews wait for weeks to unload at the city’s busy, mismanaged port,” the report stated.
