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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
CERTIFICATION……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2
DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
ACKNOWLEDGMENT………………………………………………………………………………………… 4
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 8
Background of Study………………………………………………………………………………………….. 9Statement of Problem………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10Objectives of study…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11Scope of Study…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15Significance of Study…………………………………………………………………………………………. 16Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17Hypothesis and research question………………………………………………………………………….. 17
2.1 Review of Concepts…………………………………………………………………………………………. 19
2.2. Theoretical framework………………………………………………………………………………………. 22
Frustration aggression theory………………………………………………………………………………… 22Regional security complex theory…………………………………………………………………………… 25Greed grievance theory…………………………………………………………………………………………… 31Research Design…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 37Population of Study……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 38Sampling size determination……………………………………………………………………………………. 38Sample size technique…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 38Method of Data Collection……………………………………………………………………………………… 39Data collection……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 39Validity and Reliability…………………………………………………………………………………………… 40Technique of Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………… 40Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 41Data Presentation and analysis……………………………………………………………………………….. 41Analysis of the roles of maritime pirates in mitigating insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea 41Analysis of the impact of maritime piracy and insecurity on the development of the Gulf of
Guinea……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 42
Analysis on efforts of tackling maritime piracy and security in the Gulf of Guinea……….. 43 4.2.4
Analysis of the prospects of sustainable peace and security through awareness of maritime piracy in the sub-region……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 44
4.2.5 Analysis of ways of enhancing the capacity to manage maritime piracy and insecurity in the sub-region……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 45
Discussion of findings……………………………………………………………………………………………. 46Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 51Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 51Recommendations………………………………………………………………………………………………. 53
REFERENCES APPENDIX
ABSTRACT
In comprehending the challenge that this study sets out to come in terms with, is a fore- knowledge of the region regarded as the Gulf of Guinea is considered useful. There are diverse opinions about the exact composition of the Gulf of Guinea. According to Merz and Yates, the geo-political entity known as “the Gulf of Guinea consists of the seven countries along the South Atlantic Ocean, namely Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Angola and Congo.” Given this opinion about the geographical sphere of the region, the Gulf of Guinea can be said to have straddle countries within three sub- regions of Africa –West Africa (Nigeria), Central Africa (Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe) and Southern Africa (Angola). Within this stretch, there are smaller oil producing countries namely Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea,
Gabon, the Islands of Sao Tome and Principe, and Congo Brazzaville in Central Africa. Damian Mane conceives the region in a broader perspective; thus, he insists that the region is made up of “a large number of countries from West and Central Africa: Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR) Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra-Leone, and Togo.
Key words- gulf of guinea, maritime, piracy, oil bunkering, pirates.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The Gulf of Guinea is made up of the maritime areas of the western parts of the African continent, and harbouring the Atlantic coastlines of 11 west and central African countries. The countries include Senegal, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola, Congo, among others.
The Gulf of Guinea sub-regional oil fields are undisputedly attractive to oil companies because they deliver higher profits per barrel than from most other parts of the world. Similarly, the sub-region has proven reserves of 46 billion barrels, and with extensive exploration and exploitation efforts underway, this is expected to hit 100 billion barrels by the year 2010. Oil industry experts predict that by 2022, the industry will have invested more than $40 billion in the sub-region. Furthermore, according to the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate Report, oil supply levels from the sub-region to the United States are expected to grow from the current 16 percent of U.S. oil imports to 25 percent by the year 2015. Adding that, the natural gas production potential of the Gulf of Guinea sub-region is another reason for increased interest of the world‟s major energy consumers.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of attacks on oil vessels by pirates, in particular in the Gulf of Aden, Somali Basin and the Indian Ocean and recently the Gulf of Guinea. Vast areas of waters are affected making it a great challenge to prevent maritime piracy incidents.
Maritime piracy affects major shipping lanes, and puts at risk the lives of seafarers and merchant seamen from all over the world, of who largenumbers amounting to hundreds are taken captive each year.
Millions of dollars in ransom payments are paid to pirates. It is believed that these payments are divided between the pirates, their leaders and those who finance them. Intelligence agencies indicate that part of the money is reinvested abroad through Somali emigrants.
Tracing the financial flows of ransom money is one of the main challenges faced by law enforcement agencies.
Over decades off the western coast of Africa just north of the equator, the gulf of guinea has suffered and endured the terror of maritime piracy around its borders and waters.
There were 439 worldwide piracy attacks in 2011, more than half of which were attributed to Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and off the coast of Oman. Other piracy hotspots for 2011 included the coast off Nigeria and Benin in West Africa, and Southeast Asia, near Indonesia.In the case of Somalia, analysts say one of the largest drivers of piracy is the lack of an efficient governing authority in the country. The Gulf of Guinea is vast, nearly equal to the Gulf of Mexico, and the shipping lifeline for a dozen nations, ranging from tiny São Tomé and Príncipé to the continent’s most populous, Nigeria, and geographically second largest, the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the primary access route to and from major oil-producing countries Angola and Nigeria, it is critical to international shipping, and its already dense tanker traffic will only increase due to recent discoveries of offshore oil in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Liberia. (www.google.compircay hotspot.org, accessed November 11th 2014)
The U.S. first grasped the strategic value of the Gulf of Guinea in the early 2000s, when, as part of a new African oil policy, the Bush administration boosted naval forces there to protect the investment of its oil companies. As piracy began to rise, Washington and its international partners launched maritime security cooperation programs that provide ships and equipment to African navies
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Piracy off West Africa has been driven much more by political and social grievances. In the Gulf of Guinea, many hijackings target oil tankers, with pirates seizing the oil and then selling it for a profit on the black market Peter Chalk, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corporation, told CFR.org. Chalk says there is evidence that Nigeria’s rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)–which has pressured the Abuja government to more equitably allocate oil revenues–has been involved in attacks on oil tankers off the coast
Piracy in the gulf of guinea affects a number of countries in West Africa as well as the wider international community. By 2011, it had become an issue of global concern.
Pirates in the gulf of guinea are often part of heavily armed criminal enterprises, who employ violent methods to steal oil cargo. In 2012, the international maritime bureau (IMB), Oceans Beyond Piracy(OBF) and the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Program(MPHRP) reported that the number of vessels attacks by West African pirates had reached a world high, with 966 seafarers attacked during the year.
Bunkering: oil is stolen directly from pipelines, artisanal refined, and sold in local and international markets
Kidnapping: employees of oil firms are subjected to kidnapping by pirates for ransom.
Extortion: major oil companies pay protection fees to communities and security companies to ensure pipelines are not sabotaged.
National embezzlement: enormous subsidy fraud has recently been uncovered by the Nigerian parliament
Smuggling: Subsidized fuel is smuggled across borders to markets where it is worth three times as much, at a direct cost to the Nigerian people
Tracing the financial flows of ransom money is one of the main challenges faced by law enforcement agencies.
1.3
OBJECTIVES/AIM OF THE STUDY
The sole aim of me picking this topic is educate various people what maritime piracy has done to west Africa as a whole, there have been so much lost of lives and properties, vandalizing pipelines, kidnap cases, even human trafficking.
The specific objective are
What are the role of maritime pirates in mitigating insecurity in the gulf of guinea
To examine the impact of maritime pirate and insecurity on the development of gulf of guinea.
To evaluate the efforts of tackling maritime piracy and insecurity in the gulf of guinea
What are the prospects of sustainable peace and security through awareness of maritime piracy in gulf of guinea
To investigate ways of enhancing the capabilities to manage maritime piracy and insecurity in the gulf of guinea
Below is the rate of piracy in the gulf of guinea over the past years:
In 2003 – 39 cases
First half of 2004- 13
2007 – 56
2008 – 40
2012 – 966 (www.google.com, sourced from academia.edu uploaded by F.Onuoha oil piracy in the gulf of guinea)
Table of Recent piracy trends in Africa
200620072008TotalGhana31111Nigeria12424094Somalia2044110174Tanzania9111434Other African states13211852Sum total of attacks 365
(Source; International Maritime Bureau, Piracy and armed robbery against ships; International Maritime Organisation, Reports on acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships)
The table above further illustrates the level of piracy attacks in Africa over three years(2006- 2008). Piracy is at its height in Africa particularly the gulf of guinea, thereby affecting economic relations with international states.
The international community has expressed concern and grievances over the increasing number of reports of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre reported that the range of the attacks is extending and the level of violence against the crews is “dangerously high”.
In November 2011 Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon assembled a team to examine the situation. As a result a recommendation was made to convene a regional summit as to form a united front by the affected West African countries. It was recognized that the area that is the entire gulf of guinea needs a comprehensive maritime security framework across national boundaries to fight piracy. Furthermore, technical and logistical help is needed from the international community.
The United States military Africa Command (Africom) started joint naval training exercises with affected West African countries.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, pirate incidents off the West Africa seaboard in 2012 increased to 34 from 30 the previous year.
On 19 November 2012, the United NationsSecurity Council held an open meeting to discuss piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, among other areas. The debate, which was the first held by the Security Council about this subject, was called by Indian Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri and heard more than 40 speakers from different countries and international organizations. Several speakers noticed that while acts of piracy in the Indian Ocean were declining due to coordinated naval operations, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea was intensifying. They suggested applying lessons learned there to the Gulf of Guinea, “including a focus on modernizing counter-piracy laws, strengthening capacities for maritime law enforcement and crime investigation, supporting regional networks and increasing knowledge sharing.
So far in the year 2012 the record of sea violence was alarming, there was so much loss of lives properties, many neighbouring countries suffered the terror of maritime piracy around their borders and water.
The Nigerian Navy should be determined to continually provide “a holistic operational framework, anchored on surveillance, response initiative and enforcement in Nigeria‟s maritime domain.
Another aim is to tackle the challenges surrounding the security threat of the gulf of guinea which includes piracy, drug and human trafficking, pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, unregulated and unreported fishing, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, and environmental degradation.
Furthermore, the security lapses in the gulf to which includes “lack of basic maritime awareness which creates ungoverned maritime environment for criminals to operate, inadequate national and regional capabilities to monitor maritime surface traffic in a timely manner should be tackled so as to reduce maritime piracy to a minimum level.
Accordingly, the Nigeria Navy should aim at the lead in increasing existing regional maritime domain capability through surveillance systems located along Nigeria‟s coastline in order to improve total awareness of the environment.
“This effort has already started yielding tangible results with the arrest of over 40 vessels engaged in illegal activities in our waters.
1.4
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of the study is limited to the Gulf of Guinea a sub-region in the West Africa, which compromises of Senegal, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola, Congo.
Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has evolved over the first decade of the century. For some time, smaller ships transporting employees and materials belonging to the oil companies with any
involvement in oil exploration had been at risk in Nigeria. Over time, pirates became more aggressive, improved on their strategies and tactics and better armed.
As of 2014, pirate attacks in West Africa mainly occur in territorial waters, terminals and harbours rather than in the high seas. This incident pattern has hindered intervention by international naval forces. Pirates in the region operate a well-funded criminal industry, which includes established supply networks from far and near. They are often part of heavily armed and sophisticated criminal enterprises, which increasingly use mother ships to launch their attacks. The local pirates’ overall aim is to steal oil cargo either as a form of retaliation as seen in the Niger delta militants or for criminal personnel‟s in the government. As such, they do not attach much importance to holding crew members and non-oil cargo and vessels for ransom. Additionally, pirates in the Gulf of Guinea are especially noted for their violent modus operandi(that is their habitual methods or procedure), which frequently involves the kidnapping, torture and shooting of crewmen. The increasingly violent methods used by these groups are believed to be part of a conscious “business model” adopted by them, in which violence and intimidation plays a major role.
By 2010, 45 and by 2011 64 incidents were reported to the United Nation International Maritime Organization(UNIMO). However, many events and operations go unreported. Piracy acts interfere with the legitimate trading interests of the affected countries that include Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As an example, trade of Benin’s major port, the Port of Cotonou, was reported in 2012 to have dropped by 70 percent, thereby causing major economic breakdown in these countries. The cost of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea due to stolen goods, security, and insurance has been estimated to be about $2 billion. By mid-November 2013, pirates in the Gulf of Guinea had launched around 100 attacks during the year.
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