Comments on: The Gulf of Guinea: Maritime Piracy’s New Global Nerve Center /region/middle_east_north_africa/gulf-guinea-maritime-piracys-global-nerve-center-18429/ Fact-based, well-reasoned perspectives from around the world Fri, 14 Aug 2015 14:39:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Dirk Steffen /region/middle_east_north_africa/gulf-guinea-maritime-piracys-global-nerve-center-18429/#comment-31558 Tue, 09 Dec 2014 14:18:57 +0000 #comment-31558 I suppose facts don’t come into play in this article… The authors clearly don’t understand that piracy off Togo and Benin is the same one that’s driven by Nigerian criminal networks…. as to the Nigerian relation with the narcos: there is no evidence of collaboration except that they belong to similar networks. Yet they fail to mention the most obvious criminal connection: illegal bunkering. They also have many facts wrong: NDVF preceded MEND, not the other way around – and one is a militia, the other is an umbrella organisation. The amnesty was implemented in 2009, not 2011. I’m sure all this could be found if the authors had been a bit more diligent.

The policy recommendation is equally flawed: the nations don’t need more kit for counterinsurgency and anti-piracy, but a functioning regional framework for trans-border law-enforcement, a political will to address maritime security issues and improved maritime governance.

I believe the authors have never before dealt with the issues in this region before.

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