Nigerian
Pirates
This is an informational video about a spesific tanker attact close to the Niger Delta, an oil producing regin. The nigerian pirates kidnapped five crew members and stole personal bellonings.
Sefety
If the crew of ships feels unsafe travelling to Africa then it will be hard to import or export with the eastorn countries. It is very common where crew members either get taken as hostages or killed and if they survivemost will never return to the water. If companies stop sending ships to eastern countries out of fear that the vessle will be borded then both the companies as well as Western Africa's economy will suffer. There is also further fear that the illegal funds being made from piracy or the boats being taken could make it back into the hands of terrorists thus unstabilizing the region more. It was recently found out that an Islamic extreme group was behind a very well executed and well planed out attack on a vessel and the money returned was believed to have been sent back to buying weapons. There has also been news of Boko Haram trying to get closer ties with the Oil pirate gangs so they can get more funding like there Middle eastern counterparts ISIS.
Reputation
Africa has a bad reputation with violence and disease already but adding the fact that crew members of first world countries cannot safely do their jobs in Africa does not help. The people returning from their voyage that have seen or experienced terrible acts of piracy will warn their fellow distrabution countries. Other crew members back at home also hear the stories of piracy may feel threatened to go to Africa. Also people travelling to a place from a first world country want to feel safe on vacation but if there is pirates abducting people they may not feel safe and may travel somewhere else resulting in the collaps of the tourist economy.
Whats the solution?
To fix this problem, the west African government needs military support, this includes financial help and training support from western nations. It is known that the African protectors do not really have the recourses to defend them selfs let alone others in a water attack. As the pirates become more successful they are getting new boats, weapons and tactics. All of these countries especially Brazil are trying to help with the protection the Gulf of Guinea. That being said, it is much needed for these countries to send much needed personnel to train the African coast guards or at least send some ships and weapons as support. As the piracy continues it leaks further and further into the Atlantic ocean and it could very well soon be a problem in Brazil or Europrian counties. There have been talks in the past about setting up a multi country safety zone in the Gulf of Guinea meaning that certain countries militaries may enter or leave the gulf at any time as long as there is a strong support system remaining close to the Gulf. This pact would have meant that countries like France, U.S.A, South Africa and many other nations could send ships to the waters of Nigeria at any time they want to defend their interests. This pact would have made this zone a large world wide military hub which is something unwanted so instead the Africans are asking for arms and training. The U.S government has said that if the Nigerians can increse port security then they will allow the African coast guards to train abroad U.S Naval ships along side the U.S.
​Piracy
Most of the piracy threats from the surrounding coastline of Africa is mostly caused by the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean with a huge threat from Somallian pirates. However, there is a very high increase of threat in the Gulf of Guinea from the surrounding coast of Nigeria.
The cause of this is the Niger Delta regin which is the location of many oil refineries which are consentrated together. This poses a treat for pirates to borad an oil tankter and siffen the oil to an empty vessle ran by the pirates then brought back to land for resale of the stolen oil.