Islamabad
More than 120 organisations across the maritime industry, including flag state administrations, shipowners, charterers, and shipping associations, have joined hands to raise the world’s attention on piracy threats in the Gulf of Guinea and take the first steps to improve security.
A task force of stakeholders from across the shipping industry launched the Gulf of Guinea Declaration on the Suppression of Piracy.
The attacks on merchant ships in the Gulf of Guinea by Nigerian pirates must end, said the shipping association BIMCO, which had convened a group of shipowners to draft the document.
Their aim was to speak openly about the piracy problem in the Gulf of Guinea and get all the stakeholders involved to develop effective solutions.
BIMCO maintains that the piracy can be suppressed with as little as two frigates with helicopters and one maritime patrol aircraft to actively patrol the area. —TLTP
