By Mr Nkasi Wodu, Peacebuilding Manager, Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) SWAIMS webinar held on 31st March 2021 with civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria

1. Piracy and Armed
Robbery in the
Niger Delta
By Nkasi Wodu
Peacebuilding Manager, Foundation for Partnership
Initiatives in the Niger Delta

2. Presentation Summary
Definition of Piracy
Definition of Armed Robbery
What are specific Piracy and Armed Robbery Activities?
Actual and Attempted Piracy and Sea Robbery Incidents in Nigeria
Locations with the Most Incidents
Hotspots in Nigeria
Effects of piracy and armed robbery
Specific Piracy and Armed Robbery Activities in the Niger Delta?
Piracy, armed robbery and organized crime in the Niger Delta
What can Civil Society Do?

3. Definition of Piracy
a. any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the
passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:
i. on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;
ii. against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;
b. any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate
ship or aircraft;
c. any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (b).
Article 101 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS)

4. Definition of Armed Robbery
a) any illegal act of violence or detention or any act of depredation, or threat thereof, other than an
act of piracy, committed for private ends and directed against a ship or against persons or
property on board such a ship, within a State's internal waters, archipelagic waters and territorial
sea;
b) any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described above."
International Maritime Organization Resolution A.1025(26)

5. What are specific Piracy and Armed Robbery
Activities?
International Maritime Bureau (IMB)
Fired upon
An illegal act of perpetrators
discharging weapons
towards the ship while
attempting to gain access
onto the ship
Boarded
An illegal act of
perpetrators successfully
gaining access onto a ship
Attempted
An illegal act of perpetrators
attempting to approach a
ship with possible intention
to board but unsuccessfully
due to timely actions of the
crew
Hijacked
An illegal act of perpetrators
successfully gaining access
onto the ship and taking over
the control of the ship from
the master and crew
Either of these could lead to death, injury, theft, kidnap, hostage or damage to the cargo.

6. Piracy and Armed
Robbery Statistics
in Nigeria

7. Assault
0%
Hostage
17%
Kidnapped
80%
Killed
0%
Injured
3%
Type of violence perpetrated on the crew in Nig (Jan 2019 - June 2020
Assault Hostage Kidnapped Killed Injured

8. Locations With The Most Incidents (January – June 2020)
Singapore Straits
16%
Nigeria
57%
Indonesia
27%
Locations with most of incidents JAN 2019 - JUNE 2020)
Singapore Straits Nigeria Indonesia

9. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2018 Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018 Q4 2019 Q1 2019 Q2 2019 Q3 2019 Q4 2020 Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2021 Q1
Incidents Fatalities
Piracy And Sea Robbery in the Niger Delta (Incidents and Fatalities 2017-2021)
Data Sources: ACLED, Nigeria Watch and P4P Early Warning data

10. 27
1
21
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Guns
Other Weapons
Not stated
Types of Arms Used (January 2019 - June 2020)
Guns Other Weapons Not stated

11. Hotspots in Nigeria
Bayelsa
Brass
Bonny Island
PHC
Lagos

12. Piracy hotspots in the Niger Delta (2017 – 2021) Source: Peace map, PIND Foundation

13. Hotspots in Nigeria
“Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea emanates almost exclusively from Nigeria. “The Nigerian pirates use the Niger Delta as the staging
point for attacks on shipping across the whole eastern part of the Gulf of Guinea and take hostages, holding them for ransom in
camps in the Niger Delta.”
- The head of maritime safety & security at the Baltic & International Maritime Council in Copenhagen
The roots of the problem, however, run deep. most of the pirates come from the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, an
impoverished region that is home to vast oil reserves but where drilling has contaminated local land and water.
Since the two most important economic sectors in the area — fishing and farming — have been destroyed, many
people are looking for other sources of income. This makes it easy for criminal gangs to recruit new pirates.
- Kamal-Deen Ali, executive director of the Center for Maritime Law and Security Africa in Accra

14. Effects of Piracy and Armed Robbery
Piracy undermines maritime safety and intensifies insecurity, disrupting maritime trade and water transportation.
Piracy can increase the cost of waterborne transport, disrupt artisanal fishing and endanger the livelihoods of coastal
communities.
Piratical attacks could also disrupt oil and gas production and reduce the State government revenue from taxation and federal
allocations
Threat to the maritime economy
It could reinforce other organized criminal activities including militancy, illegal oil bunkering as well as drugs and arms trafficking,
cause social tensions and intensify insecurity in coastal communities.
Stifles international trade and threatens the global flow of goods and services across the world
Maritime insecurity could destabilize the local economy. Sea robbery could hinder the transportation of persons, goods and
services between upland and riverine communities

15. Piracy, Armed Robbery and the Proliferation of
Small Arms and Light Weapons
According to SBM Intelligence, the number of small arms in circulation in Nigeria, in the hands of civilian non-state actors is
estimated at 6,145,000. This is compared to over 500, 000 in the hands of security forces.
The proliferation of small weapons in Southern Nigeria combined with already existing state corruption and mass
unemployment has contributed to the rising criminality and violence in the region.
The most far reaching effect of arms proliferation in the region is the rise of militancy which evolved to include destruction of oil
pipelines, the kidnap of oil workers, threatening to bring Nigeria’s economy to a standstill.
The proliferation of small arms enabled crimes such as kidnapping, pipeline vandalism, illegal oil bunkering and sea piracy and
armed robbery.

16. Piracy, Armed Robbery and the Proliferation of
Small Arms and Light Weapons
According to data, from January 2019 – June 2020, guns were used in sea piracy and armed robbery activities
in 77 times. In Nigeria, guns were used 27 times (35%) out of the 77 times guns were used in sea piracy and
armed robbery activities across the world.
Thus, the proliferation of arms have enabled sea piracy and armed robbery activities.
Piracy and armed robbery also reinforces arms trafficking. Pirates have been known to use proceeds from their
activities to engage in the purchase of illegal arms

17. Piracy and Armed
Robbery Activity in
the Niger Delta

18. Specific Piracy and Armed Robbery Activities in
the Niger Delta?
The traditional modus operandi of pirates operating in the region largely involves the use of speedboats to
attack and dispossess crew of cash, cargo and valuables, when the vessel is at anchor or in harbor.
It also involves the highly sophisticated, illicit stealing of oil from vessels and offshore tankers which are then
resold to the black market
It involves the kidnap of expatriate fishermen for ransom
It also involves the kidnap of victims and hijack of vessels for ransom

19. Piracy, Armed Robbery and Organized Crime
in the Niger Delta
In the Niger Delta, organized crime is often intertwined with, and feeds off of, other known conflict drivers such as
Piracy and armed robbery .
Organized crime in the Niger Delta, often manifested as sea piracy is also intertwined with other vices such as
militancy, cultism, oil bunkering etc. It flourishes in environments experiencing communal, militant, and political
violence. It utilizes the chaos and discontent caused by the growth of intercommunal, political, and other types of
violence for both short– and long-term economic gains and exacerbates societal cleavages and mistrust between the
government and local populations by providing parallel systems of commerce.

20. Piracy, Armed Robbery and Organized Crime in
the Niger Delta
It is paramount to understand the cross-cutting nature of organized crime in the Niger Delta in order to successfully mitigate its
effects. Prior efforts have often treated piracy, militancy, cultism, as separate dynamics, fueled by distinct and discrete entities,
interests, and ideologies.
According to PIND Foundation, Piracy overlaps with militancy, oil bunkering, kidnapping, arms trafficking, armed robbery, gang
violence and communal tensions.
Piracy flourishes alongside organized criminality in the Niger Delta because the actors are mostly the same, driven by similar
motives and enjoying patronage from the same networks.
According to the Nigerian Navy, the most prominent criminal activities they encountered in 2020 were sea piracy, illegal bunkering
and oil theft, suggesting a strong co-relation among these activities.

21. Measures to
Combating Piracy
and Civil Society
Involvement

22. Military Solutions are Not Enough
According to the Navy, no fewer than 339 pirate attacks were recorded in the Gulf of Guinea in 2020, out of which 214 –
representing 63 per cent of the total – were recorded on Nigeria’s territorial waters.
Nigeria has invested roughly €165 million in improved surveillance systems, ships and airplanes. The recently appointed naval
chief of staff, Rear Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, has ordered his officers to take a hardened approach to pirates.
While a military approach is commendable, piracy and armed robbery will not be eliminated by military solutions alone.
“An expanded presence on the water isn't enough according to IMB Director Michael Howlett. He said that acts of piracy
are still planned on land, and they still end on land. This is where gangs are headquartered and where they invest their loot.

23. What can Civil Society Do?
CSOs need to empower the widest possible range of stakeholders through training, dialogues, and engagement, especially women
and youth. Early engagement, informed as much as possible by local level data, should inform a comprehensive strategy to amplify
the voices of a wide range of leaders across the Niger Delta to weaken perpetrators of sea piracy and armed robbery.
CSOs must treat situate sea piracy and armed robbery within the broader context of organized crime in all interventions, whether
they are focused primarily on resolving communal and political tensions, or ethno-nationalist grievances and concerns.
CSOs should consider convening multi-stakeholder dialogues in the Niger Delta to bring together key actors and explore the
burgeoning conflict trends relating to organized crime and its offshoots such as sea piracy and armed robbery