UNSC discusses piracy in Gulf of Guinea
October 20th, 2011 - 3:33 am ICT by IANSUnited Nations, Oct 20 (IANS) The UN Security Council Wednesday held an open debate on the piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, turning the world attention once again on the problem off the African coast, Xinhua reported.
“The exigency of this discussion cannot be overemphasized,” said Joy Ogwu, Nigeria’s UN ambassador who holds the rotating UN Security Council presidency for October.
“Although less widely reported than piracy off the coast of Somalia, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has become so prevalent that it is now the second most defined piracy problem on the African continent.”
Piracy is characterized by armed attacks on commercial cargo ships, taking hostages, undertaking organized crimes such as drug and human trafficking, thus posing a serious threat to the international peace and security.
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeast part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon and north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia, spanning a dozen of Central and West African countries with a growing source of oil, cocoa and metals to the world markets.
Pirate attacks on ships in the Gulf of Guinea are threatening one of the world’s emerging trade hubs and are likely to intensify unless the regional efforts are beefed up to fight pirates who enjoy natural hideouts along a craggy coastline.
“New cases of piracy and armed robbery aboard vessels along the West African coast are being regularly reported, with significant potential consequences for economic development and security,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the open Security Council meeting here Wednesday.
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Tags: african continent, armed robbery, ban ki moon, cape lopez, cape palmas, cargo ships, commercial cargo, council presidency, craggy coastline, exigency, gulf of guinea, human trafficking, international peace, open security, organized crimes, pirate attacks, regional efforts, tropical atlantic ocean, un secretary general, un security council