Ghana is sending its navy and air force on patrols to help fight piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, according to local media reports.
The joint patrols will focus on the country's eastern territorial waters and be dispatched immediately, The Chronicle said, citing a "highly placed security source" within the government.
Kidnapping off commercial ships in the Gulf of Guinea is increasingly becoming a problem for the industry, with the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reporting 77 seafarers taken off their ships in the first six months of 2020, with 90% of those incidents in the West African waters.
More recently, two Russian seafarers had been kidnapped off Seatrade's 400,884-cbf reefer Water Phoenix (built 2002) near Lagos on 8 September.
Four days prior, the Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade — Gulf of Guinea warned shipping to be on "maximum alert" after it received information that armed groups in Rivers State in Nigeria were planning an attack off Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
In August, maritime security consultancy Dryad Global reported a likely boarding attempt on the 73,300-dwt tanker Pike (built 2008) more than 100 miles (160 km) offshore Ghana. The IMB reports three other incidents this year off Ghana, two boardings close to shore and a third further offshore on a drillship.
According to The Chronicle, the Nigerian and Cameroonian navies had stepped up the patrols in their territorial waters, pushing pirates west toward Ghana.
The enforcement could be pushing pirates further out to sea, as well — in July, 13 seafarers were kidnapped off the 11,322-dwt tanker Curacao Trader (built 2007) 452 km south of Conotou, Benin.
The attack, according to Dryad, was the furthest offshore pirate attack in the Gulf of Guinea to date.
