The Gulf of Guinea Piracy: Impact and Effectiveness of Control Measures

Abstract

Maritime piracy is an old concept, the history of which can be traced far way back since the time when the human being started using sea as a means of transport. Its criminality was firstly been considered by the customary international law even before codification of the same in 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas and later the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Somali piracy emerged in the 1990s, its narrative root causes, and impact brought by it and how it is combated have moved the author to write this paper.

The International law perception of what constitutes acts of piracy lead the governments of Gulf of Guinea coastal states to be solely responsible for maritime security of their countries as well as eliminating piracy acts happening in their area. Different from piracy off the coast of Somalia, a stateless country, Gulf of Guinea countries have stable governments and thus the principle of sovereignty applies. The combat of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea is vested to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC) with the aid from partner States.This paper focused on impact of Gulf of Guinea piracy to the maritime industry and to the countries, effectiveness of the control measures placed to combat piracy and challenges facing the combat of piracy in the area. Moreover, the definition of maritime piracy, narrative root causes of piracy off the coast of Gulf of Guinea, and lastly, conclusion and recommendations are the areas covered by this paper.

Keywords: Piracy, Armed Robbery, Violence, Gulf of Guinea