Piracy and Maritime Insecurity among Territorial Waters of Africa: Analysis of Comparative Implications to Sustainable Regional Development

I. INTRODUCTION

The African Maritime space is not new to violence at sea. The level of insecurity in the continental waters, vary with the national territorial coastlines, especially when viewed with the lens of maritime piracy and armed robbery against ships. This environmental condition of the African Maritime industry, in the age of frightening insecurity tends to vitiate the giant effort of the region towards sustainable development. Piracy and armed robbery in this context are widely conceived to be one and the same activity of theft occurring at sea against ships, hence undifferentiated. It is based on this fusion that piracy is simply defined as robbery of ships at sea. However, attempts have been made by the United Nations and its maritime agencies to differentiate the duo. Article 101 (a) of the United Nations convention on the law of the sea (UNCLOS), 1982, defines piracy broadly and distinctively thus:

any illegal act of violence or detention, or any act depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft and directed (i) on the high seas, against another ship or air craft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft; (ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any state.

Armed robbery against ships means any act of dispossessing any ship or its crew members of any valuable or property by the use of arms or weapons expressing physical force. The international Maritime Organization (IMO) Resolution A. 1025 (26) I, defines armed robbery against ships as;

any illegal act of violence or any act of depredation, or threat thereof, other than an act of piracy, committed for private ends and directed against a ship or against persons or property on board such a ship, within a state's internal waters, archipelagic waters and territorial sea (ICC-IMB Pirarcy and Armed Robbery Against Ships Report: 2018)

Shafa (2011) definition of piracy includes elements of armed robbery at sea thus: the act of boarding or attempting to board any ship with the apparent intent to commit theft or any other crime and with the apparent intent or capability to use force in the furtherance of that act. Zhou and Seibel (2015) explain that piracy only takes place on the seas, more than 12 Nautical miles from the shore, while attacks taking place within the territorial seas are defined as armed robbery.

Equally, they observed that such act as armed robbery must be committed within the responsibility of a respective state. The line between the two acts is so thin and a times blurred, that most international maritime crime watch organizations/agencies group them as single act and which thispaper has found appropriate. Infact the frequency of occurrence of piracy and armed robbery in national territorial waters of African states, constitutes serious insecurity problem to all concerned.

Insecurity is the opposite of security. It signifies the presence of threats to preferred values of the individual, the group, the organization, the state or even group of states. Insecurity exists in several sources and dimension, which clarification per time and place is essential to understand its nature and extent of effect. Ojukwu and Amusa (2020), present insecurity, simply as the absence of safety and the presence of danger, hazard, uncertainty and lack of protection. Uchendu and Obiozor (2020) accept insecurity as the feeling of one not being secured in his or her environment, a state of mind that is characterized by unsafe feelings; feeling of being vulnerable to attacks and danger. Building from the above, and from Wolfers conception of security, as the absence of threats to acquired values, we accept Baldwin (1997:15), contention that "since threats to acquired values (insecurity), can arise from many sources, it is helpful if this dimension is clearly specified".

The insecurity dimension of David Baldwin's conception in this regard inquires thus; insecurity from what threats? Military, ideology, economic, social, political, ethnicity, crime, insurgency, marine, and air among other threat sources. Beyond the insecurity dimension from what threats, there is the dimension of what is threatened? This insecurity dimension may cover the individual or human, national, community, eco system, political system, home and so on. What constitutes threats in this insecurity dimension covers all forms of violence at sea – piracy, kidnapping, ship hijack, arms trafficking, hostage taking, and bunkering/ illegal refineries among others. Also, what is threatened as object of security goes beyond the state to include, the vessels, ships, boats. (private and public) humans – crew members, marine workers, captains/sailors or sea farers and fishers, including companies, properties and the ecosystem and aquatic lives among others. Maritime insecurity in this regard targets piracy and armed robbery against ships /vessels on African territorial waters. Oluwole (2021) asserts that the rising incidents of violent attacks are symptoms of weak, exclusionary or exploitative governance system in the country (concerned).

Territorial Water of any nation represents a coastal space into the Atlantic Ocean where a given sovereign nation has specific and maximum jurisdiction to all forms of legitimate transactions, explorations and claim to ownership of natural resources at sea. Territorial water of nations is an area of rich oil and gas deposits, and solid minerals such as gold, diamond, aluminum, iron ore, bauxite, coal, Uranium and copper among others. The jurisdictional sea territory is often times expressed in tens, hundreds and thousands of kilometers or in thousands, hundreds of thousands of square nautical miles. For instance all the territorial waters in West Central and South-West-Africa are described as covering 6000 kilometers coastline from Senegal to Angola (World Maritime News, 2016), while Shafa (2011) describes the same as covering about 250,000 square nautical miles. It is based on the huge wealth accruing from the natural resources within the territorial waters that makes heightening crimes and insecurity a common feature of the African maritime environment.

Africa is the second largest continent in the world with over 840,000,000 people, covering a geographical expanse or area of 11,700,000 square miles (the New Webster, 2004). She has not less than 58 sovereign nations located in five sub regional natural clusters – North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Middle East (Central) Africa and south Africa. The continent flaunts a coastal environment with very rich marine resources and prospects in crude oil and gas deposits as well as in solid minerals. Africa by maritime index is structured into about 4 gulfs/coastlines, thus:

• The Gulf of Aden – harbours the Somali coast and other territorial waters of the East African coastline.

• The Barbary Coast – harbours the territorial waters of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, along the North African coastline.

• The Gulf of Guinea – Harboursterritorial waters along the West African, Central African and South-West African Coastlines.

• The Mozambique water channel/Cap Sea route – harbours territorial water along the South African coastline.

All these gulfs and coastlines have national territorial waters which constitute the maritime environment of Africa that is threatened by insecurity. The level of such insecurity in the continent's maritime environment if high, as we suspect, may affect the sustainable development of her territorial waters disproportionately.

Sustainable development is an amalgam of two words – sustainable and development. The term sustainable is only a qualifying prefix to development. It describes an aspect of environmental development that is long lasting, unending or for all time.

Opurum, Egbe and Onwubiko (2019:214) understand sustainability as the enduring value of any thrust or effort towards development.. Whereas sustainable development according to Uchendu and Obiozor (2021) is one that is characterized by the availability of healthy sectors, maintenance of equipment, peace, prosperity, fulfilling and rewarding work and a development which gains have been retained and built upon.The most widely cited meaning of sustainable development is the one given by the United nation's World Commission on Environment (1987) popularly known as the Bruntland Commission, thus; "a development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs" (Our Common Future, UN General Assembly 1987). Boutrous-Ghali (1994) asserts that "sustainability must be strengthened as a building principle of development."

Development has been conceived, based on the criteria of common goals sought by all individuals and societies and expressed through three core values – "Sustenance", "Self esteem and "freedom". Todaro and smith (2005:55), accepting the view of Goulet (1971) on the core values of development, define it "as sustained elevation of the entire society and social system toward a better and more humane life." To explain the core values of development, the duo present sustenance as the ability to meet basic needs, self esteem, as the ability to be a person; while freedom from servitude, as the ability to choose. Seers (1969) believes that to know if a country is developed, there is need to ask the following questions, thus:

What has been happening to poverty?

What has been happening to unemployment? What has been happening to inequality?

Dudley seers, is right with the argument that "if three of these have declined from the high levels, then beyond doubt this has been a period of development for the country concerned. If one or two of these central problems have been growing worse, especially, if all three have, it would be strange to call the result development even if per capita income doubled" (Todaro and smith 2003:50). Building from Seers (1969) view of development, and from Emas (2015) notion of sustainability as long term stability; this paper presents sustainable development; as the ability to realizelife longstability of human potential that is readily manifest in institutional or structural effectiveness and improved quality of life of the inhabitants of any society or environment.

The inspiration for this paper stems from the wide claim of increasing violence at sea, within and around African coasts by internal and external stakeholders of the continent's maritime industry. The more inspiration is derived from purported high level of such insecurity among the national territorial waters in Africa. It is pertinent to this paper therefore to; ascertain the nature of insecurity among territorial waters in Africa; determine the level of such insecurity using incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships; and finally make comparative analysis of the implications of the level of insecurity to sustainable development. The collective security framework is found a relevant theoretical guide to direct analysis in the study. This paper would remain an invaluable resource material for future studies on comparative implications of maritime insecurity to sustainable development of territorial waters in Africa, with particular reference to piracy and armed robbery againstships.

II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: COLLECTIVE SECURITY

"Collective security is an arrangement in which all states cooperate to provide security for all by the actions of all against any states within the groups which might challenge the existing order by using force". The concept is espoused by a wide range of scholars, including but not limited to Kenneth Waltz, Woodrow Wilson, William Penn and Reinhold Niebuhr. The common position of these scholars is that collective security is "a principle adopted by the United Nations to dissuade any member state from acting in a manner likely to threaten peace, and thereby avoiding any conflict".

The underpinning assumption herewith, is that a threat or actual attack against any object or core value of a territory within a given environment is a threat or actual attack against the shared values of that environment and by extension the global. And such threat if unchecked by some concerted expression of credible might can hamper peace security, and socio-economic development of not only the territory, but the wider environment and other interacting environments.

Ubelejit (2014) explains that collective security combines the strategy of diplomatic quarters with coercion for the maintenance of international peace and security. He insists that in extreme cases, collective security advocates the use of force or declaration of war – when all known diplomatic approaches are exhausted. Collective security arrangement thus, becomes an arena for diplomacy, balance of power by states and exercise of soft power.

The application of this theory in the African maritime environment, will lead to growth and mutual understanding and will facilitate social interaction between the state parties to the Joint Development Zone's Treaty. It indicates the desire of state parties to Joint Development Zone's treaty to embrace peace and security for productivity. This indicated desire is hoped to be achieved by collective fight against the menace of piracy, smuggling, armed robbery at sea, abductions and all forms of manifestation of crimes and insecurity along the joint territorial waters of the Gulf.

III. METHODOLOGY

The paper by setting focused on natural maritime environment of Africa. It targeted piracy and armed robbery against ships and levels of maritime insecurity among national territorial waters in Africa to analyse their comparative implications to sustainable development. It made use of descriptive research design and collected secondary data from structured documents based on available data method which is suitable to a non-survey and non-experimental research. The structured documents allowed the researchers access to formatted entries of the report (or data) from the international communication council(ICC) and the international maritime bureau (IMB) which were set between 2014 and 2018 among other unstructured information from magazines, Journals and Textbooks. Data collected were analysed by blending descriptive statistical tools relevant to nominal and ordinal interval levels of measurement with historical comparative method. By this data analysis technique it became possible to factor two basic tools of comparison – the percentage point interval values, PPIV and the insecurity mean rating, IMR into single analytic scheme that yielded the relevant criteria of comparison for this paper. The collective security theoretical framework was equally found relevant to guide analysis in this paper as was anchored on a research assumption that the increasing violence within and around the African waters is not a common characteristics of the African maritime environment but an indication of variation in the level of insecurity among territorial waters in the continent. And such variation can lead to variation in the stability of development therein which collective security can rescue and unify.

Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships Among Territorial Waters of Africa, 2014 – 2018.

To show that maritime insecurity varies among territorial waters of Africa with inconsistent annual incident differentials, this paper used specific samples of piracy and armed robbery against ships over a period of five 5 years between 2014 and 2018 as derived from the joint report of the International Communication Council (ICC) and the International Maritime Board (IMB), as shown below:

Table 1: Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships Among Territorial Waters of Africa Between 2014 – 2018

The table 1 above presented 167 reported cases of piracy and armed robbery against ships across 20 territorial waters of Africa Maritime environment, between 2014 and 2018. The data showed that the highest number of incidents occurred around the Nigerian waters consistently for the 5 years period with a total of 89 cases out of 167. Its highest recorded incidents of 31 cases were while the lowest incidents of 10 cases were in 2014. The territorial waters of Gabon, South Africa and Tanzania recorded the lowest incidence of maritime insecurity on African waters across the

5 years period of study. Each of these territorial waters recorded only one case of piracy and armed robbery against ships in 2014, 2016 and 2014 respectively.

Equally, the highest incidence of maritime insecurity occurred in 2018 with 50 cases as against 34 cases in 2016, 33 cases in 2014, 27 cases in 2017 and 23 cases in 2015. The above worrisome situation would be clearer, should we appreciate the level of insecurity in these coastal lines.

Table 2: The level of Maritime Insecurity Among Territorial Waters in Africa, 2014–2018

Table 2 above showed that out of 167 reported cases of piracy and armed robbery against ships across 20 territorial waters of Africa 53.6% or more than half of the incidents took place on Nigerian waters (6.0% in 2014, 6.6% in 2015, 14.4% in 2016, 7.9% in 2017 and 18.7% in 2018). The Ghanaian waters recorded a distant next highest cases of insecurity with only 5.4% across five years (1.2% in 2014, 1.2% in 2015, 0% in 2016, 0% in 2017 and 3.0% in 2018). The lowest cases of maritime insecurity were observed on the territorial waters of Gabon (0.6%), South Africa (0.6%) and Tanzania (0.6%).

To determine the level of maritime insecurity in this regard, the paper collapsed the above simple percentages into percentage point interval to yield high, very high, low or very low ordinal values.

Illustratively:

75.00 - 100.00% Very high insecurity

50.00 - 74.99% High Insecurity level

25.00 - 49.99% Low insecurity level

0.00 - 24.99 Very low insecurity

A low or very low insecurity level means that there is increased safety and no significant threat to core values at sea. Whereas a high or very high insecurity means decreased safety and very significant threat to the core values at sea (given territorial water).

Table 3: The summary of Level of Maritime Insecurity By Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships Among African Territorial Waters

Insecurity mean or 5.0%

The table above showed that out of 167 territorial waters of the African Maritime environment, only the Nigerian waters recorded high insecurity level of 89 incidents and above the mean ( ) of 8.0 or (5.0%) reported cases. This is against only one territorial water (Ghana Coastline) that recorded very low insecurity level of 9 incidents and above the mean of 8.0 or with 5.4% above the mean of 5.0% reported cases. Whereas 18 out of the 20 territorial waters of Africa, recorded very low insecurity level and below the mean( ) of 8.0 or 5.0% reported cases.

IV. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE LEVEL OF INSECURITY AMONG TERRITORIAL WATERS OF AFRICA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Granted that piracy and armed robbery against ships constituted serious insecurity in the African Maritime space. And granted that insecurity is recorded in levels of existence with variations among her territorial waters. The paper considered a comparison of different levels of insecurity among territorial waters of Africa with a view to analyse their implications to sustainable development of the maritime environment of the host national territories and by extension the continent's maritime environment. The comparative analysis in this regard is guided by clear interpretation of the percentage point interval values, PPIV and the insecurity mean rating IMR, of the territorial waters in Africa.

The percentage point interval values determine the level of insecurity by their ordinal values representation of very low, low, high or very high as established. While the insecurity mean rating (IMR) represents the common tolerable insecurity condition of the African maritime environment that would not hinder the sustainable development of her national territorial waters. The two basic tools of comparison (PPIV and IMR) were factored into a single analytic scheme for each level of analysis, which this paper presents as the criteria of comparison, thus.

• A low or very low insecurity level and below the mean of insecurity cases in Africa; would indicate that there is not much difference and no threatening variation between the insecurity situation in African maritime environment and that of her national territorial waters.

• A low or very low insecurity level and above the mean of insecurity cases in Africa; would indicate that there is little difference and less threatening variation in the insecurity situation of the African maritime environment and that of her national territorial waters.

• A low and very low insecurity level and equal to the mean of insecurity cases in Africa; would indicate that there is no difference and no variation in the insecurity situation in African Maritime environment and that of her national territorial waters.

• A high or very high insecurity level and above the mean of insecurity cases in Africa, would indicate that there is much difference and much more threatening variation in the insecurity situation in African maritime environment and that of her national territorial waters.

The above criteria of comparison and their analytic scheme are based on the assumption of this paper that; the increasing violence at sea, within and around the African waters, may not be a common characteristic of the African maritime environment but an indication of variation in the level of insecurity, among the territorial waters of the continent. And such variation in the level of insecurity can lead to variation in the stability of development therein, which only a unifying system of controlling uniqueness of environmental threats can explainthrough collective security.

Comparative Criteria (Logic Of Comparism1: Based on our comparative logic or criterion 1 in relation to table 3 above, 16 out of 20 sampled territorial waters in Africa had not much difference and no threatening variation between their insecurity situation and that of the African maritime.

Maritime environment between the period 2014-2018. This is because, they all recorded very low level of insecurity by the percentage point interval of between 0.00-24.99%; and had a total number of maritime insecurity incidents below the mean (8.0) of insecurity cases of the African maritime environment. These territorial waters include, those of Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, the Red Sea, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, the Congo and Togo. The implication of the level of insecurity situation in these territorial waters, is that it is not a threat to the common tolerable insecurity condition of the African maritime environment. Also this level of insecurity can not hinder the sustainable development of the environment of these territorial waters. This is because there seem to be put in place in the maritime environment of these territorial waters, qualitative insecurity control mechanism which is very efficient to sustain development.

Comparative Criterion 2: Guided by this criterion as established, in relation to table 3 above, only the Ghanaian territorial waters out of the 20 sampled in Africa, had little difference and less threatening variation between her insecurity situation and that of the African maritime environment between the period 2014 and 2018. This is because, this territorial water recorded very low level of insecurity based on the percentage point interval of between 0.00-24.99%, and had a total number of maritime insecurity incidents of (9), above the mean (8.0), of insecurity cases of the African maritime environment. The implication of this level of insecurity on the territorial waters of Ghana is that it is of less threat to the common tolerable insecurity condition of the African maritime environment. Also, the level of insecurity in the territorial water of Ghana if unchecked can hinder sustainable development of its maritime environment. This is because at present, this maritime environment seems to have put in place less average quality insecurity control mechanism that is less efficient to sustain development of the maritime territory.

Comparative Criterion 3: Guided by the third criterion for comparison as established above, in relation to table 3, only 2 territorial waters; the gulf of Aden and the Somalia coast out of the 20 sampled in Africa, had no difference and variation between their level of insecurity situation and that of the African maritime environment, between the period 2014 and 2018. The two territorial waters recorded very low level of insecurity based on the percentage point interval of between 0.00-24.99% and had a total number of 8 insecurity incidents each that is equal to the mean (8.0) of insecurity cases in the African maritime environment. The implication of this level of insecurity in the Gulf of Aden and Somalia coast is that it has the same common tolerable insecurity condition of the African maritime environment. Also, this level of insecurity cannot hinder sustainable development of the concerned territorial waters, but may likely degenerate to hinder same unless there is effort to improve the insecurity control machinery therein. This is because at present the maritime environment of these territories seems to have in operation average quality insecurity control mechanism which needs to improve.

Comparative Criterion 4: The fourth criterion for comparison reveals that only the Nigerian territorial water, out of the 20 sampled in African had much difference and much more threatening variation between its level of insecurity situation and that of the African maritime environment, between the period 2014 and 2018. This territorial water, recorded a high level of insecurity based on the percentage point interval of between 50.00-74.99%, and had a total number of 89 maritime insecurity incidents, far above the mean (8.0), of insecurity cases of the African maritime environment. The implication of this level of insecurity on the territorial waters of Nigeria is that it is of much threat to the common tolerable insecurity condition of the African maritime environment. Also, the level of insecurity in the territorial waters of Nigeria, would hinder the sustainable development of its maritime environment. This is because the paper suspects the existence of very poor quality of insecurity control mechanism, which would require thorough structural reorganization in order to bring the desired change in her maritime industry.

V. CONCLUSION

Piracy and armed robbery against ships are indeed recurring decimals of insecurity in the African maritime space. These acts of violence at sea are found to exist in different levels among territorial waters of Africa with variations in their disposition to the common tolerable insecurity condition of the continent's maritime environment. An indication that the increasing spate of these forms of violence at sea, is not a common characteristic of the African maritime environment but of variation in the level of insecurity among the territorial waters in the continent. The paper explored comparison of these levels of insecurity among territorial waters of Africa and analyzed their implication to sustainable development. It revealed that most of the territorial waters of Africa (16 out of 20 or ) had very low insecurity level and below the mean of insecurity cases in Africa between 2014 and 2018, hence not a threat to the common tolerable insecurity condition of the African Maritime space, and a such cannot hinder sustainable development of the environment of the territorial waters within the period of study.

The Gulf of Aden and the Somalia coast, had very low level of insecurity and which frequency is equal to the mean of insecurity cases in Africa, which implies presence of the same common tolerable insecurity condition of the African maritime environment, which cannot hinder sustainable development but can engender degeneration of insecurity situation unless there is urgent effort to improve its insecurity control architecture. The paper suddenly discovered that the Nigerian territorial waters, is the actual hotspot of the high insecurity that has stigmatized the African maritime industry in the last five years. Its level of insecurity, varied far widely and consistently above the mean of insecurity cases for the period under study, with much threat to the common tolerable insecurity condition of the African maritime environment. A situation that posed great hindrance to sustainable development of the environment of Nigeria's territorial waters. The assumption of this paper is hereby confirmed that; the increasing violence at sea within and around African waters, is not a common characteristic of the African maritime environment, but an indication of variation in the level of insecurity among the territorial waters in the continent. And such variation in the level of insecurity can lead to variation in the stability of development therein, which collective security can rescue and unify.

RECOMMENDATION

This paper based on its research assumption makes a general recommendation of a Unified African Maritime Insecurity Control System (UAMICS), as response to variation in levels of Maritime insecurity among territorial waters in Africa, for sustainable development, through collective security framework. This is because insecurity as nurtured by crimes in one environment is a threat to another environment by close neighborliness.

Other Specific Recommendations include;

• Effective consolidation of the security structure of territorial waters with reasonable years of consistently very low level of insecurity report and below the mean towards qualitative insecurity control mechanism.

• There is need to beef-up and improve the security structure of the national territorial waters of Africa with less average and average insecurity control networks by domesticating the qualitative insecurity control mechanism of the above category in line with the proposed unified insecurity control system.

• Total Dismantling and structural reorganization of the security architecture of national territorial waters which have very poor quality insecurity control networks towards a qualitative one.

• Quick incident reporting and response action (QIRRA) to be established as part of the Unified African Maritime Insecurity Control System (UAMICS), to stem the tide of insecurity in the continental coasts.

• There is need for a joint surveillance and intervention task force in national territorial waters with very high incidence of maritime insecurity.

It is the expectation of this paper that should these recommendations be adopted, the increasing insecurity and its associated levels of variations among territorial waters of Africa would be drastically reduced towards sustainable development of the continent Maritime environment.