Financial Times: ‘Call for military intervention to combat maritime kidnapping surge’
Credit: Financial Times, Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty
During our Gulf of Guinea focus in September - October this year, senior analyst Dr. Dirk Siebels held an in-depth webinar on the GoG situation and the changes in threats the region has seen in recent years. One of these changes is a surge in kidnappings. The Financial Times interviewed Siebels on the background of this development.
26 November 2020
Excerpt from the article in FT:
“The global shipping industry has sounded the alarm over a surge in kidnappings at sea, and called for greater military protection from pirates for vessels operating in dangerous waters. Highly organised pirate gangs operating off the West African coast are increasingly targeting the crew of merchant ships rather than cargo or fuel, industry figures warned.
The 6,000km coastal strip from Senegal to Angola has been named “the most dangerous region in the world for mariners to operate”, and the rise in kidnappings could increase the cost of transporting goods by sea, as well as make it more difficult for shipping companies to find crew. The threat of kidnappings led India to ban its seafarers from working on vessels passing through the Gulf of Guinea off west Africa.”
Dirk Siebels provided some perspective on the background: “These groups are becoming much more comfortable keeping higher numbers of hostages and conducting ransom negotiations, which means they get more money and become even greedier next time round."
Siebels further explained that pirates also target mariners over cargo to limit time spent on the target vessel - as a way to avoid getting caught. “If you’re hijacking crew members, you only need to be on the ship for an hour or two, which makes it impossible to respond to,” he explained.
The article highlights that fourteen of the 27 crew of a Liberia-flagged vessel that was boarded off the coast of Equatorial Guinea this month remain missing.
Read the full article here: Call for military intervention to combat maritime kidnapping surge (Paywall)