Countering piracy in the Gulf of Guinea: What role for private armed guards?

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With an area of 2.300.000 square kilometers the Gulf of Guinea is second largest gulf in the world. The Gulf is an important stop on some of the world’s most trafficked shipping routes yet, for several years since the decline of Somali piracy, the Gulf of Guinea has been considered the world's hotspot for piracy.

This happened even though in 2013, the Gulf of Guinea states adopted the Yaoundé Code of Conduct to counter maritime crime. The Code laid the foundation for outside partners like Denmark and the EU to collaborate with coastal states to strengthen regional security structures and ensure maritime security. However, piracy attacks continued to rise and peaked in 2020 with 123 registered attacks, hereunder affecting several Danish ships.

Therefore, shipping companies like Mærsk have several ships operating in the area daily, and organizations such as Danish Shipping and Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) have repeatedly called for protection of merchant vessels operating in the Gulf of Guinea.

In this seminar we’ll discuss how piracy is addressed in Gulf of Guinea, which assumptions about effects inform responses and which effects we have seen in the region.

We will hear from the shipping industry to learn what they have done to avoid hijackings and kidnappings and why, despite the EUR millions spent to combat piracy, seafarers still feel they are risking their lives, when they go to work.

The seminar is part of the project ‘Counter-piracy Infrastructures in the Gulf of Guinea’ (COPIGoG), kindly funded by a Grant from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, administered by the Danida Fellowship Centre.

Speakers

Marie Barse, Communications Officer, Danish Institute for International Studies (moderator) 
Jessica Larsen, Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies
Stephanie Schandorf, Research Assistant at Copenhagen University
Jakob P Larsen, Head of Maritime Safety & Security, BIMCO
Chris Ludvigsen, Head of Marine, Uni-Tankers - and former captain
Dirk Siebels, Senior Analyst, Risk Intelligence

Programme

10.00-10.10     Welcome, Marie Barse
10.10-10.30     Public responses to an age-old crime,

• Jessica Larsen
• Stephanie Schandorf

10.30-11.00     Perspectives from the private sector,

• Jakob P Larsen
• Chris Ludvigsen
• Dirk Siebels 

11.00-11.30     Q&A

The seminar was held and recorded on 24 October 2023, 10.00-11.30 at DIIS Auditorium.