By Tanwa Ashiru
While sea piracy is decreasing worldwide, the International Maritime Bureau says it is increasing at an alarming rate in Gulf of Guinea West Africa. There have been at least 32 attacks so far this year, with most of these attacks taking place in Nigerian territorial waters. Compared with 54 attacks in the same waters all through last year!
These piracy attacks affect the Nigerian economy in more devastating ways than we know. Aside from being a major source of oil, the Gulf of Guinea represents a significant transit hub for cocoa and metals destined for world markets. London think-tank Chatham House reported that up to 400,000 barrels of crude oil are stolen every day in the Gulf of Guinea. Some other statistics say Nigeria is losing about $1.5 billion a month as a result of piracy, sea armed robbery, smuggling and so on.
Incidents that occur in our territorial waters affect the global economy as there are more interconnected shipping supply networks. For example, on the 11 April 2016, two ships were attacked in the Gulf of Guinea, one of which was MT Puli which confirmed that six Turkish seamen had been kidnapped by pirates.
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Via: http://guardian.ng/
