Africa must better protect its waters as it faces piracy on an ever-larger scale, illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste, a regional meeting on maritime security heard on Thursday.
“Africa is surrounded by water, 38 African Union member states [out of 53] are islands or on the coast. Seas or oceans that are not secure are potential havens for criminal activities,” Bright Mando, an AU jurist, told a two-day meeting in the Ethiopian capital. Addis Ababa.
“African countries should cooperate and coordinate their efforts on maritime security. We need to act now,” he added.
Many countries do not have the means to watch or defend their coasts and have become a haven for pirates, for illegal fishing, for the dumping of toxic waste and in some cases for the trafficking of drugs and people.
Environmental group Greenpeace recently undertook a one-month study in the waters between Morocco and Gambia and found 130 vessels, most of which were illegally trawling, Greenpeace’s Africa director Michelle Ntab told Agence France-Presse.
“This type of illegal fishing is a threat to marine biodiversity, particularly in West Africa where the majority of the population relies on fish,” she said.
“If a traditional fisherman has difficulty in reaching his daily quota he will go in search of other resources … Moreover there will be fewer fish on sale in the region’s markets and therefore a food security problem that will impact the dynamics of immigration,” she continued.
Numerous experts at this week’s AU meeting on maritime security cited Somalia, which has seen a huge rise in piracy due to the chaos in the country since 1991.
But Somalia is also a textbook case for maritime security, as it has suffered from the dumping of toxic waste as well as illegal fishing, which leaves fewer fish for local fisherman, who then turn to piracy. — AFP