West African Piracy Cooperation

This is important news.

Nigeria and Benin will cooperate to fight the growing threat of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, which has seen a number of attacks in recent weeks. Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan made the announcement during bilateral talks with Benin, which were convened to address the issue.

"Criminals don't respect political boundaries in their nefarious activities, so we will cooperate with one another to find lasting solutions to the problems they pose," Jonathan said on Thursday. He was speaking to Benin’s President Boni Yayi during bilateral talks in Abuja, Nigeria. The talks came after Yayi called for a regional summit on the issue of piracy.

Yayi said that pirates and bandits were threatening the maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea and called for action, led by Nigeria, to check the menace.

Jonathan said that the relevant Nigerian officials will work with their counterparts in Benin to find ways to deal with the problem.

On Thursday, Chief of Staff of Benin’s Navy Maxime Ahoyo said that, "Dozens of ships are already fleeing our shores due to fears of these pirates."

The tiny nation has been hit by a series of attacks on ships in its waters in recent weeks, forcing London's maritime insurance market to add Benin to a list of areas deemed high risk.

The recent spike in attacks has not gone unnoticed, for example Lloyd's now lists Benin in the same category of risk as Somalia in terms of piracy. This announcement follows a gathering of naval leaders from both nations on HSV Swift.

Unlike Somalia, this region does have a local maritime security presence. How quickly and effectively the piracy problems can be addressed and dealt with by local authorities is what needs to be followed closely here.

There is one more issue... is there a relationship between increased activity of AQIM and the maritime piracy? So far no links have been established, but there is a great deal of concern regarding AQIM and the narcotics trade, and the coincidence both AQIM and piracy become more active at the same time can't be ignored.