By CANUTE C.N. TANGWA
According to Chester Crocker, former US assistant secretary of state for Africa, “there is more piracy in the Gulf of Guinea than anywhere else in the world”.¹ Thus, the Gulf of Guinea (GG) is as insecure as the Straits of Malacca² and the maritime domain that covers the territorial waters (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone (24 nautical miles) and exclusive economic zone (200 nautical miles) from the Somalian coast.
For current purposes, the GG stretches from Guinea to Angola which represents a coastline of more than 6,000 kilometres. However, this paper would focus mainly on Nigeria, Cameroon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome et Principe and Equatorial Guinea; countries at the epicentre of the GG. The latter sits on resources such as oil, gold, diamond, uranium, fish, zinc, bauxite, copper, manganese, cobalt, citrate and so on. It is home to one of the largest forest reserves in the world and hosts the biggest hydroelectric energy potential in Africa. However, the most coveted of theses resources is petroleum and its corollary gas.
Click here to continue reading the rest of the article.

Comments