Tradewinds: ‘Is the media guilty of exaggerating West African piracy threat?’

Photo: Tradewinds / Scanpix

Senior analyst Dr. Dirk Siebels held an in-depth webinar on the Gulf of Guinea which was published as an article in Tradewinds. Dirk Siebels spoke to Gary Dixon on key points of the persistent Gulf of Guinea piracy threat.

30 September 2020

Excerpt from the article on Tradewinds:

“West African piracy remains a threat, but attacks are not becoming more frequent despite headline-grabbing abduction stories in the media, says Dirk Siebels, senior analyst at Danish security consultancy company Risk Intelligence.

During a webinar on the piracy situation in the Gulf of Guinea, Siebels said the industry is becoming more vocal about the problem. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has said West Africa is becoming increasingly dangerous, accounting for more than 90% of kidnappings worldwide. Shipowners' organisation BIMCO has also spoken out about a complete absence of effective law enforcement against Nigerian pirates, and how recent attempts to step up efforts have been ineffective.”

Dirk Siebels does not entirely agree with this view. While the overall number of incidents has remained relatively stable over the past couple of years, there has been no increase in 2019 and 2020.

"The situation is complicated and not all about piracy," he says. "Every attack is one too many. But the situation, while it is a concern, is far from spiralling out of control. The reality does not match those headline-grabbing claims about things getting worse.”

Read the full article here: Is the media guilty of exaggerating West African piracy threat?