Maritime expert and law consultant, Dr Kofi Mbiah, has given reasons for the recent piracy attacks on Ghanaian registered vessels on the Gulf of Guinea.
Speaking on the Eye on Port programme, Dr Mbiah asserted that hitherto, fishing vessels were not the main targets of pirates.
According to him, pirates were previously hi-jacking and attacking oil tankers and merchant ships.
“Previously the pirates had no particular vessel in mind but was just interested in what they had to steal. But as time went on, they begin to do oil theft and so when oil became the main impetus for they carrying out the act, they now targeted tankers and so where doing illegal bunkering by taking off a tanker, put it in a smaller tanker and go off and sell them,” he stated.
“These days because of sea print of oil, it’s becoming difficult for the pirates to sell oil at various places and consequently illegal bunkering is now not seen to be profitable especially once they get into the act of taking ransom,” he noted.
Speaking further on the programme, Dr Mbiah noted that fishing vessels have become an easy target for pirates because of absence of armed guards or escorts on the vessels.
Read: Piracy attacks to affect cost of doing business at Ghana’s ports – Captain Francis Kweku
“So the pirates have moved from general cargo ships, to tankers, to merchant ships and now they have come to fishing vessels and the reason is not because they don’t want to attack merchant ships but because a lot of merchant ships entering the Gulf of Guinea are either using armed guards or escorts and the GPHA is also protecting the anchorage together with the Ghana Navy so the level of protection for merchant ships has gone up,” he intimated.
Adding fishing vessels are more vulnerable to piracy attacks due to their inability to move fast on the waters while fishing.
“Now the fishing vessels are vulnerable because once they drop their nets they cannot move fast and consequently they become easy targets for the pirates,” he posited.
Responding to why expatriates are the main targets in the piracy attacks on the fishing vessels, Dr Mbiah stated that the pirates target the expatriates because they believe they will get more monies from demanding for ransom in kidnapping expatriates.
“The main reason why they do these things is for kidnapping, and the last two kidnaps that happened off the shores of Ghana, there were Ghanaians on board but they targeted the expatriates because they think that’s where the monies will come from,” he noted.
The country recorded two cases of piracy attacks on Ghanaian vessels last month – May 2021.
Also: Adherence to ISPS code to resolve piracy attacks on Ghanaian vessels – Captain Francis Kweku
The first piracy attack occurred on May 19, 2021, where 5 expatriates were kidnapped after pirates hijacked a Ghanaian-registered tuna vessel on Atlantic Princess approximately 66NM South of Tema, Ghana.
The recent incident occurred on May 31, 2021, in which four Koreans and a Filipino were abducted from a Ghanaian registered fishing vessel in the Gulf of Guinea, Benin waters to be specific.
Per information gathered, 6 pirates armed with AK47 rifles boarded the commercial fishing vessel through her starboard side.
According to Second Officer, Mark Afedi Mensah who was onboard the vessel, hours prior to the attack, they spotted an unidentified tanker near the horizon but could not at the time establish whether that was a mother vessel of the pirates or not.
He said the darkness combined with the tactics deployed by the pirates made it impossible for them to deploy evasive maneuvers.
