Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 03/2015

Combating Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea

Admiral Adeniyi Adejimi Osinow

February 2015

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Abstract

Despite earning the inauspicious title in recent years as the shipping corridor with the highest number of piracy attacks in the world, regional responses to piracy and maritime security threats in the Gulf of Guinea, have been fragmentary. Maritime domain awareness remains low, interagency coordination is limited, and intra-regional coordination mechanisms that have been established are often underfunded. In this latest Africa Security Brief, "Combating Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea," Admiral Adeniyi Adejimi Osinowo, an officer with the Nigerian Navy and an expert contributor to the 2050 Africa's Integrated Maritime Strategy, reviews the challenges faced, progress made, and priority policy interventions needed if the worsening trend of maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea is to be reversed.