Shippers call for coalition against Gulf of Guinea pirates

LAGOS - Major international shipping and maritime companies have called for a coalition to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, where armed kidnappings of seafarers reached record levels last year.

A key shipping route stretching from Senegal to Angola, the Gulf of Guinea has seen pirates, mostly Nigerians, attacking farther out to sea in more sophisticated, violent assaults on commercial ships.

A group of around 100 shippers, maritime companies and trade associations have signed a declaration released on Monday calling for more cooperation to curb piracy in the region, which accounted for almost all maritime abductions in 2020.

“The threat that looms for all seafarers going to the region is being kidnapped at gunpoint for ransom,” said the declaration, which was developed in online meetings by signatories from Europe, China, Japan, India and Turkey.

“The violence, scope, and sophistication of the attacks on shipping has continued to increase.”

Signatories include some of the world’s largest shipping companies and associations, including industry group BIMCO, Denmark’s TORM and Maersk Tankers, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and Chinese transporter COSCO.

Several EU nations already often have naval vessels in the area, but pirate gangs are increasingly attacking beyond Nigeria’s coastal waters, where they know ships are more vulnerable.

Denmark, a major shipping nation, in March said it will dispatch a naval frigate with dozens of marines onboard to deter pirate attacks on commercial ships there.

Denmark has been pushing for a stronger international naval presence in the Gulf of Guinea, where pirates race in speed boats out of bases hidden in Nigeria’s Delta region to snatch crews from vessels.