scholarly journals A Pestle Analysis of Maritime Piracy and Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 472-482
Author(s):  
Dr. Capt. Nana Raymond Lawrence Ofosu-Boateng ◽  
Zhang Jiping
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
International Security ◽  
Maritime Security ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Maritime Piracy ◽  
Business Transaction ◽  
Political Economic

The Gulf of Guinea is a region that that draws a lot of interest to many nations in Latin America, Europe and West Africa. It is because these countries depend on this region for conducting their business. Most of the countries export their products and import other goods through the Atlantic Ocean (Ali, 2017). The discovery of oil in Nigeria led to increased business transaction in this region and thus, the development of the economy. However, it also led to the rise of piracy, which affected the maritime security of the area. Many ships and other sea vessels have been affected by the acts of pirates who attack the ships and steal the content being transported. Sometimes they could also hijack these vessels and demand for ransom for them to be released. The ability to counterattack the pirates and robberies in this region is affected by factors which range from political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental. Matters such weak governments and poor implementation of the laws and conventions make the countries in the region to lack ability to tackle pirates in the sea and thus have to rely on the international security agencies like Interpol policing and other forces to help in providing security in the sea (Hasan, & Hassan, 2016). Increase in population, lack of unemployment, and poverty are also some of the things which makes many youths in the region to participate in these criminal activities because they lack something constructive, which can generate income.

Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Schneider ◽  
Vanessa Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
Port Harcourt ◽  
Southern Border ◽  
Populous Country

The Federal Republic of Nigeria, known as Nigeria, is the most populous country in Africa and is situated on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. It is bordered by Benin, Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and the Atlantic Ocean on the southern border. Nigeria has a total area of 923,763 square kilometres (km) for a population of 190.9 million (2017). The capital of the country is Abuja with an estimated population of 2.153 million. Lagos, the former capital, with a population of over 9 million, is the country’s leading commercial and industrial city. Other main cities include Kano, Onitsha, Aba, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna. The normal working week is from Monday to Friday, from 0800 to 1600. The currency used in Nigeria is the naira (N).

scholarly journals The Ripple Effects of Maritime Piracy and Armed Robbery in the Gulf of Guinea

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 289-302
Author(s):  
Nana Boateng
Keyword(s):  
Political Instability ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Economic Perspective ◽  
Armed Attack ◽  
Environmental Implications ◽  
Maritime Piracy ◽  
Ripple Effects ◽  
Final Destination ◽  
Logistic Chain ◽  
Political Economic

The acts of piracy had bedeviled mankind for many centuries though the modus operandi of this sinister act keeps changing over the years. The core concept still remains the same. It usually involves an armed attack at sea for a vessel, its cargo, crew or all of the three. The stage is set at sea, but the fall out effects are far reaching than we can imagine. There are political, economic social, security and environmental implications. All these aggregates or determinants are intertwined and have adverse consequences on all the stakeholders. Failed states political instability has become fertile grounds for pirates or sea armed robbers. Economically, the disruption of free movement of vessels, capture of crew for ransom has adversely affected the prices of goods at its final destination. This paper seeks to examine the relationships and effects these attacks have on the various facets of the marine logistic chain. The socio-economic model of Dr Kenneth McLeroy is used to explain the various linkages existing between these determinants viz economic perspective, social perspective, environmental perspective and political instability. Finally, the relevance of maritime security in the sphere of governance and the ability of institutions which would use the safety of our oceans is examined.

Piracy and Maritime Security in Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jatin Dua
Keyword(s):  
Vantage Point ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Maritime Security ◽  
The Political ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Maritime Piracy ◽  
Legal Responses

In a seemingly virtual era, maritime commerce and shipping retain a central role in contemporary global capitalism. Approximately 90% of global imports and exports currently travel by sea on around 93,000 merchant vessels, carrying almost 6 billion tons of cargo. Oceanic mobility and long-distance networks of trade are made possible and sustained by the life and labor of over 1.25 million seafarers currently working at sea as well as regimes of global security and governance. Yet, this oceanic world and its role in shaping politics, sociality, and regulation remains, for the most part, obscured and hidden out of sight in everyday life. As one of the oldest perils at sea, maritime piracy is not only a daily threat to seafaring and global shipping but makes visible this oceanic world and the larger networks of security and regulation that govern maritime commerce. In recent years, coastal Africa, specifically the waters off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Guinea, has seen an unprecedented rise in incidents of maritime piracy. The geopolitical and global trade importance of these areas has led to numerous national, regional, and international military and legal responses to combat this problem. While often seen as a seaborne symptom of failed states or criminality, maritime piracy has a more complex relationship with land- and sea-based governance. Occurring primarily in spaces that are politically fragmented but reasonably stable maritime piracy is better understood as a practice of extraction and claim making on mobility that emerges from deeper historical contexts and is linked to land-based economies and politics. Emphasizing maritime piracy in the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea within these wider historical and geographic contexts highlights the imbrication of the political and economic in shaping the emergence and transformations of this practice. This is not to deny the violence that constitutes maritime piracy, but to locate piracy within larger processes of mobility, governance, and political economy on the African continent and beyond. In addition to impacting local communities, seafarers, and global shipping, maritime piracy is key to apprehending challenges to global governance from the vantage point of the world’s oceans.

West Africa anti-piracy push faces multiple obstacles

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Maritime Security ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Gulf Of Aden ◽  
Actual Number ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Security Services ◽  
Multiple Obstacles

Subject Outlook for maritime security in West Africa. Significance According to International Maritime Bureau (IMB) statistics, reported incidents of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea are declining. From January to September 2015, 24 incidents occurred, against 33 in 2014 and 47 in 2013. However, the IMB acknowledges that the actual number could be much higher, posing significant threats to regional trade, 90% of which is conducted by sea. Impacts China's planned base in Djibouti will help its anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden, while raising concerns on its military aims. The AU maritime security summit in March 2016 will probably produce new anti-piracy commitments, but implementation will lag. Nigeria's planned 'rehabilitation' programmes for former Niger Delta militants are unlikely to dissuade them from illicit activities. Its navy's recent signing of 29 deals with private firms for security services will augment its improved hardware and surveillance capacity.

Criminal Threats Undermining Indo-Pacific Maritime Security: Can International Law Build Resilience?

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-220
Author(s):  
Jade Lindley
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Maritime Security ◽  
Broken Windows ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Maritime Piracy ◽  
Illegal Fishing ◽  
Crime Theory ◽  
Criminological Perspective

Maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region is strategically important to not only the surrounding states, but also those with an interest in its good governance, to support safe passage and natural resources extraction. Criminal threats, such as maritime piracy and illegal fishing, enabled by corruption and the potential for terrorism, undermine regional maritime security and therefore, there is incentive for states to respond cooperatively to secure the region. Drawing on broken windows crime theory, implicitly supporting the continuation of criminal threats within the region may enables exiting crimes to proliferate. With varying legal and political frameworks and interests across the Indo-Pacific region, achieving cooperation and harmonisation in response to regional maritime-based criminal threats can be challenging. As such, to respond to criminal threats that undermine maritime security, this article argues that from a criminological perspective, aligning states through existing international law enables cooperative regional responses. Indeed, given the prevalence of corruption within the region enabling serious criminal threats, harmonising through existing counter-corruption architecture may be a suitable platform to build from.

scholarly journals Understanding the variability of the rainfall dipole in West Africa using the EC-Earth last millennium simulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiong Zhang ◽  
Ellen Berntell ◽  
Qiang Li ◽  
Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Rainfall Variability ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Last Millennium ◽  
Tropical Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Dipole Pattern ◽  
Sahel Region ◽  
Heat Low

AbstractThere is a well-known mode of rainfall variability associating opposite hydrological conditions over the Sahel region and the Gulf of Guinea, forming a dipole pattern. Previous meteorological observations show that the dipole pattern varies at interannual timescales. Using an EC-Earth climate model simulation for last millennium (850–1850 CE), we investigate the rainfall variability in West Africa over longer timescales. The 1000-year-long simulation data show that this rainfall dipole presents at decadal to multidecadal and centennial variability and long-term trend. Using the singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis, we identified that the rainfall dipole present in the first SVD mode with 60% explained variance and associated with the variabilities in tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST). The second SVD mode shows a monopole rainfall variability pattern centred over the Sahel, associated with the extra-tropical Atlantic SST variability. We conclude that the rainfall dipole-like pattern is a natural variability mode originated from the local ocean–atmosphere-land coupling in the tropical Atlantic basin. The warm SST anomalies in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean favour an anomalous low pressure at the tropics. This low pressure weakens the meridional pressure gradient between the Saharan Heat Low and the tropical Atlantic. It leads to anomalous northeasterly, reduces the southwesterly moisture flux into the Sahel and confines the Gulf of Guinea's moisture convergence. The influence from extra-tropical climate variability, such as Atlantic multidecadal oscillation, tends to modify the rainfall dipole pattern to a monopole pattern from the Gulf of Guinea to Sahara through influencing the Sahara heat low. External forcing—such as orbital forcing, solar radiation, volcanic and land-use—can amplify/dampen the dipole mode through thermal forcing and atmosphere dynamical feedback.

African American Journalists in World War II West Africa: The NNPA Commission Tour of 1944–1945

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110549
Author(s):  
Oliver Coates
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
West Africa ◽  
American West ◽  
West African ◽  
Gold Coast ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic

The National Negro Publishers Association (NNPA) Commission to West Africa in 1944–1945 represents a major episode in the history of World War II Africa, as well as in American–West Africa relations. Three African American reporters toured the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, and the Congo between November 1944 and February 1945, before returning to Washington, DC to report to President Roosevelt. They documented their tour in the pages of the Baltimore Afro-American, the Chicago Defender, and the Norfolk Journal and Guide. Their Americans’ visit had a significant impact in wartime West Africa and was widely documented in the African press. This article examines the NNPA tour geographically, before analyzing American reporters’ interactions with West Africans, and assessing African responses to the tour. Drawing on both African American and West African newspapers, it situates the NNPA tour within the history of World War II West Africa, and in terms of African print culture. It argues that the NNPA tour became the focus of West African hopes for future political, economic, and intellectual relations with African Americans, while revealing how the NNPA reporters engaged African audiences during their tour.

scholarly journals Impact of intraseasonal wind bursts on sea surface temperature variability in the far eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean during boreal spring 2005 and 2006: focus on the mid-May 2005 event

Ocean Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 849-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaëlle Herbert ◽  
Bernard Bourlès
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Kelvin Waves ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Tropical Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Tropical Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Boreal Spring ◽  
Wind Bursts

Abstract. The impact of boreal spring intraseasonal wind bursts on sea surface temperature variability in the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean in 2005 and 2006 is investigated using numerical simulation and observations. We especially focus on the coastal region east of 5° E and between the Equator and 7° S that has not been studied in detail so far. For both years, the southerly wind anomalies induced cooling episodes through (i) upwelling processes, (ii) vertical mixing due to the vertical shear of the current, and for some particular events (iii) a decrease in incoming surface shortwave radiation. The strength of the cooling episodes was modulated by subsurface conditions affected by the arrival of Kelvin waves from the west influencing the depth of the thermocline. Once impinging the eastern boundary, the Kelvin waves excited westward-propagating Rossby waves, which combined with the effect of enhanced westward surface currents contributed to the westward extension of the cold water. A particularly strong wind event occurred in mid-May 2005 and caused an anomalous strong cooling off Cape Lopez and in the whole eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean. From the analysis of oceanic and atmospheric conditions during this particular event, it appears that anomalously strong boreal spring wind strengthening associated with anomalously strong Hadley cell activity prematurely triggered the onset of coastal rainfall in the northern Gulf of Guinea, making it the earliest over the 1998–2008 period. No similar atmospheric conditions were observed in May over the 1998–2008 period. It is also found that the anomalous oceanic and atmospheric conditions associated with the event exerted a strong influence on rainfall off northeast Brazil. This study highlights the different processes through which the wind power from the South Atlantic is brought to the ocean in the Gulf of Guinea and emphasizes the need to further document and monitor the South Atlantic region.

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