Under-Reporting Blurs the Threat in the Gulf of Guinea
Original source: Soefartens Ledere (Danish Maritime Officers)
Somali pirate attacks quickly find their way into the news, the pirate attacks in the West African Gulf of Guinea are often not reported to the authorities and therefore not evident in statistics.
By Jakob Wandel | 29 89 00 98 | jw@soefartens.org
While Somali pirate attacks often find their way into the news headlines, the pirate attacks elsewhere in the world are not even being reported to the authorities or become public knowledge. This means that there is no important information about the extent and threat of piracy to the world's civilian merchant.
International analysts estimate that some companies fail to report relatively small losses from such assaults or attempted hijackings because they fear costly delays if the ship subsequently be inspected at the nearest port, anxious customers and the risk of rising insurance premiums, if all attacks will authorities or the public.
It represents a tendency that as long as the crew does not get hurt, so they do not commit silent on the attacks.
See also: West Africa piracy can be divided into 4 types
No benefits by reporting
Not least, piracy in the West African Gulf of Guinea, where much heavily armed Nigerian militants attack civilian merchant ships in high-speed boats, are underreported.
It was, however, according to the London-based analyst Thomas Horn Hansen from security firm Risk Intelligence, not primarily of economic considerations in shipping companies.
- There are no clear advantages to less reporting of attacks to the local authorities, and often there is absolutely no response by companies to their inquiries. The perception is actually the one that the rarer it is in contact with the authorities in the region, the fewer occasions, they have to make life miserable for shipping companies and their crews, says Thomas Horn Hansen.
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Underreported
An international analyst says that the official figures from the IMB (International Maritime Bureau) only shows the tip of the iceberg.
Risk Intelligence, inter alia, the business of promoting piracy-related threat assessments, also provides statistics of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, and Thomas Horn Hansen believes it is not surprising that their numbers are [considered] more reliable than the IMB's:
- Reporting of pirate attacks to the IMB is voluntary and IMB may only disclose information about attacks that are reported directly to them, he explains:
- We shall also seek to obtain information from local sources in the security industry, customers and other local partners in the area. This means that the figures are somewhat higher than the IMB's, but it's hard to say what the real extent is because such attacks on local fishing vessels are rarely reported, says Thomas Horn Hansen.
- There has been an increase in the official numbers of attacks in the Gulf of Guinea since the end of 2010, because a greater proportion of the attacks have been directed against tankers that are more likely to report to the IMB than the supply vessels in the offshore industry. But overall, it is not clear from the data that there has been a real increase in attacks.
See also: West African piracy problem without solution
Blurred threat
The consequence of the massive underreporting of pirate attacks in West Africa is that the threat is not publicly appear nearly as great as it really is.
Thomas Horn Hansen believes, however, for that reason the seafarers enter the area "blindfolded":
- It is an opaque situation, but West Africa has had a bad reputation for many years, and the seafarers know that it can be a dangerous area in which to stay. If the real extent of piracy was publicly known, I think, however, that more would get the authorities' attention.
The views expressed are those of the Danish Maritime Officers contributor and do not necessarily reflect those of OCEANUSLive.
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