Piracy in Gulf of Guinea: CEMLAWS urges government to empower Ghana’s security

The Executive Director of the Centre for Maritime Law and Security, Dr. Kamal-Deen Ali Rtd has urged government to empower the nation’s security and security intelligence apparatus with the needed retooling in the areas of logistics, financing, technology and so on in order to match up with the growing sophistication in the fight against piracy which is spreading rapidly into the country’s territorial waters.

Speaking on Eye on Port, Dr. Kamal-Deen Ali, who is also a Retired Navy Captain said it has become incumbent upon Ghana, as a matter of urgency to focus its attention on the subject of piracy which has become a threatening menace to human life and trading in the sub region.

“Piracy is not something that only affects vessels, it affects businesses, it affects livelihoods, affects everything. It could be that an attacked vessel may be carrying medical supplies, etc.,” he highlighted.

He said for the international maritime trade, one of the contributing factors to high cost of freight, is due to the unsafe nature of the sub region’s territorial waters, therefore, resulting in high cost of insurance on cargo and ships’ crew, which inevitably are transferred unto the innocent importer and consequently the ordinary consumer.

“Because of the endemic nature of piracy in our waters, vessels coming will have to take the same war-risk insurance. So it means they are paying very high level of premium and that is then passed on to the importer,” Dr. Kamal-Deen Ali explained.