Maritime security is no longer about the threat of nations at war, but the threats of yore, piracy on the high seas, and smuggling.
The theatre is no longer just at sea, but also along shores and in ports. While vessels were once the targets, says the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) senior researcher for Transnational Organised Crime Carina Bruwer, they are now the weapons.
Speaking at the recent Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) 2024 Conference on Maritime Security, organised by defenceWeb, Bruwer said Africa was particularly at risk, both from the geopolitical threats in the Red Sea as much as the fact that 38 of Africa’s 54 countries were maritime nations.
Added to this is Africa’s proximity between source and demand, as well as being very rich in resources which are extracted from the land and shipped by sea.
The high levels of corruption and weak governments made crime in Africa an even better proposition. This has been especially the case in Somalia, where Bruwer said there has been no government since 1991.
Levels of piracy there spiralled to such an extent that there was eventually a multinational response, making use of the legal concept of universal jurisdiction, allowing any country to react to any act of piracy on the high seas.
Piracy decreased accordingly in 2012 after an unprecedented response by a variety of foreign navies all working to protect their countries’ trade routes.
The problem was that as global threats shifted, the level of intensity of these operations slackened and once again the level of piracy picked up, becoming even more brazen as seen with the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
The answers, Bruwer said, are clear: transnational threats needed transnational responses to be successful. Equally, piracy cannot be contained, unless the country wanting to contain it has ships and other assets physically out at sea. Cooperation between countries and between law enforcement and security issues is vital given the sheer scale of the problem
“We all want African solutions for African problems but until we have African vessels out at sea, we will have to rely on others who are there for our own aims.”
