The Ghana Maritime Authority has taken note of a publication titled ‘Piracy in the Gulf Region; Ghana Tops Attacks’, published in the Business & Financial Times on April 11, 2023. The Authority deems portions of the article to be misleading and a misrepresentation of the facts.
The Authority would like to use this opportunity to set the record straight.
The headline and first three paragraphs of the said article – which culled data from the ICC International Maritime Bureau (ICC IMB) – left a lot to be desired about the real situation in Ghana’s maritime waters in 2022.
Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships are two distinct phenomena as defined in Article 101 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and Paragraph 2.2 of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Resolution A.1025(26) – Adopted on 2 December 2009 – Code of Practice for the Investigation of Crimes of Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships, respectively.
Per these definitions, Piracy incidents are incidents against ships occurring on the high seas or a place outside the jurisdiction of any state, while Armed Robbery against Ships are incidents that occur within a state’s internal waters, archipelagic waters, and territorial waters. These definitions were acknowledged on page 3 of the IMB report.
It must be noted that the term “Armed Robbery against Ships” is a generic term that covers all incidents such as petty thefts. It must also be noted that none of the incidents reported at the Takoradi Anchorage – which is obviously within the Territorial Seas of Ghana and could therefore not be described as piracy – involved the use of any arms or weapons, and no one was ever hurt or molested.
It is quite unfortunate to note that the IMB, knowing very well the difference between Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships, decided to lump the two together and treated the sum as ‘Incidents’ – and displayed the figure prominently in a brightly-coloured pie-chart on page 7 of their report. At the same time, IMB indicated clearly in Tables 2, 3, 4 and 5 of their report that these incidents were reported to have occurred at anchorage, which obviously cannot be described as piratical incidents.
Indeed, the caption of the article in the Business and Financial Times was quite misleading. Nowhere in the IMB’s report was it stated that there was a piracy incident in Ghana during 2022. In fact, there was no piracy incident in Ghana in 2022.
The statement in the newspaper article that states “Ghana and Angola have risen to the top on the list of countries reporting piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea” is misleading, since Ghana as a country did not and does not submit any report on piracy to the IMB. The IMB, which is a non-profit organisation, receives its reports from individual ships that believe they have found themselves in these situations – and must in all fairness seek clarification from the coastal state before publishing such reports.
Again, the article also failed to state that one of the incidents, according to the IMB, was reported as an ‘attempted’ attack. ‘Attempted’ attacks can come in different forms and are also different from ‘Actual’ robbery or piracy. Perceived ‘attempted’ attacks most often result in false alarms.
There are situations when a ship’s Captain sends false alarms of ‘Attempted’ attacks having spotted a boat traveling at high speed in the direction of his ship. It is almost impossible to alter these reports sent to the IMB when it is eventually established that the boat was going on its own voyage and not interested in attacking the ship.
These nuances make it imperative for circumspection when data from sea-borne incidents are being broken down for media reports and assimilation by the good people of Ghana.
Based on the above, the Authority cannot accept any publication that seeks to say there have been incidents of piracy within the country’s waters in 2022 as a fair representation of the facts.
The Authority and other stakeholders – Ghana Navy, Marine Police, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority – have put resources together to form joint boat patrol teams which ensure that petty thefts and robbery at anchorages are curtailed.
The Authority is by this rejoinder also making it known that transparency represents one of our core values, and we stand ready to assist with information to any interested Ghanaian or entity.
In conclusion, the Authority takes this opportunity to advise media houses to be circumspect in their reportage on stories of this nature, as it may affect the insurance premiums of vessels calling at Ghanaian ports and thereby increase the cost of doing business within our ports.
>>>This is a rejoinder by the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) to an article published in the Business & Financial Times on April 11, 2023.
