WEST AFRICA - Africa’s coastal nations are fighting a rising tide of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, piracy, and drug smuggling.
A recent report by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) says local, regional and international criminals are taking advantage of poverty and corruption to transform African waters into “the world’s biggest transnational crime scene".
West Africa, for example, is the word’s epicenter for IUU fishing. The scourge costs the region $10 billion a year, according to the Stimson Center, a think tank. China is by far the worst IUU fishing offender in the region and across the globe.
In West Africa, Chinese illegal fishing thrives due to inadequate fisheries enforcement capacity and official corruption, according to the Stimson Center.
In South Africa, abalone poaching is linked to the spread of crystal methamphetamine and other drugs. Chinese criminal networks typically poach and smuggle abalone to Hong Kong, which imports about 90% of all dried South African abalone.
62 of the 75 seafarers taken hostage onboard or kidnapped for ransom worldwide were abducted off the coasts of Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, Nigeria and Togo.
As in Somalia, international efforts led to years of declining pirate attacks; but the threat is resurging. Officials reported five incidents in the first quarter of 2023 and nine in the second quarter.
Many of the region’s pirates come from the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, where the two most important economic sectors — fishing and farming — have been destroyed and many people are looking for other sources of income, according to Kamal-Deen Ali, executive director of the Center for Maritime Law and Security Africa in Accra, Ghana.
