--- title: Is there a new piracy crisis afflicting Africa's shipping lanes? description: Should merchant ships in the Gulf of Guinea be armed against Nigerian pirates? image: https://channel16.dryadglobal.com/hubfs/Screen%20Shot%202021-01-27%20at%2009.55.17.png --- ###### 1 min read # Is there a new piracy crisis afflicting Africa's shipping lanes? By: [ Dryad Global ](https://channel16.dryadglobal.com/archive/author/dryad-global) on January 27, 2021 at 10:44 AM [Maritime Security](https://channel16.dryadglobal.com/archive/tag/maritime-security) [Maritime Piracy](https://channel16.dryadglobal.com/archive/tag/maritime-piracy) [Industry News](https://channel16.dryadglobal.com/archive/tag/industry-news) [gulf of guinea](https://channel16.dryadglobal.com/archive/tag/gulf-of-guinea) [West Africa](https://channel16.dryadglobal.com/archive/tag/west-africa) - [**](https://twitter.com/GlobalDryad) - [**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/dryad-global/) - [**](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZSIjPkeq7iDcsj4r9TF9mg?sub_confirmation=1) ![Featured Image](https://channel16.dryadglobal.com/hubfs/Screen%20Shot%202021-01-27%20at%2009.55.17.png) **Should the merchant ships in the region now be armed? BBC World Service reporter Ed Butler, talks to Dryad Global's Munro Anderson for Business Daily.** Four men boarded a Turkish-crewed container ship out at sea in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa on Saturday - they killed a crew member and took 15 hostages.   Munro discusses the difference between East and West African piracy and the 'sea-blindness' that is blighting the Nigerian administration. He says the Nigerian government is not doing enough to prevent kidnappings in the region. But Amy Jadesimi who is the MD of Ladol, a free trade area within Nigeria's largest port in Lagos, says they are doing quite a good job. And Professor Anja Shortland is a lecturer in political economy at Kings College London. She's also written a book, Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business, in which she analyses how the problem of piracy around the east African coast off Somalia was effectively contained. Ed asks her if there are lessons to be learnt from that experience. 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