Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 05/2015

Combating Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea

Adeniyi Adejimi Osinowo

April 2015

Africa Center for Strategic Studies

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. The highly fungible nature of maritime threats means that this challenge cannot be addressed solely by individual states but requires cohesive regional security cooperation. While progress has been made, stronger political commitments are needed at the national, regional, and international levels if the worsening trend of maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea is to be reversed.