As said in my last article, maritime piracy in the gulf of Guinea is not only a real threat to the country’s sovereignty but also to the people, sea vegetation and animals that inhabited those territories. So far, the UN Security Council outlined the existing terms of international law, which should be the basis for a future regime to combat piracy. First, it is art. 101-107, 110-111 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982; secondly, art. 15-23 of the Geneva Convention on the High Seas, 1958; and, thirdly, the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation 1988. Experts note that the 1988 Convention is not optimal for solving the problem of combating piracy because the scope of its application is limited to the territorial waters, and it is only applicable in cases where "the ship is navigating or is scheduled to navigate into, through or from waters beyond the outer limit of the territorial sea of a single State, or the lateral limits of its territorial sea with adjacent States" (p.1 Art. 4).

Several efforts were made to attract the world's attention to the problem of marine piracy and in October 13th -14th 2012, the Heads of State and Government concerned with this problem, held a conference in Kinshasa, which resulted in the adoption of resolution, calls on the international community to step up to the fight against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. Reports stated that the cost of training and equipping troops and local forces to fight piracy is estimated to 35 million US dollars. The urgency of the situation convinced leaders to send a request to the UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, asking him to send a special mission to assess the level of threat of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. The UN transferred the issue to its specialized organization - the International Maritime Organization (IMO). (IMO since the late 1990s - early 2000s launched a counter-piracy in hot spots such as South China Sea, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore).

Unfortunately, the majority of the suggestions made by Member States of ECOWAS to strengthen the group of warships in the sub region and to find additional funding were in vain. With the multitude of crisis in the African sub-regions, the costs are counted and the fight against piracy is unfortunately part of these problems. Any diversion of budgetary and other financial resources to enhance the fight against piracy means less chance to the ECOWAS member States to achieve the goals of sustainable development, to create conditions for sustainable environmental management, as well as environmental safety. Ensuring the safety of shipping and other maritime activities requires joint efforts in the fight against sea piracy not only from the Member States of ECOWAS, but also the international community.

As highlighted by Russian academician, Professor Kopylov Mikhail Nikolayevich, no country in the world can settle global environmental problems independently. To cope with all this, a large number of rules or regulations of a recommendatory nature such as «soft law» has played and continues to play a significant role in the regulation of international environmental relations. The first step in this direction was the adoption of the Code of Djibouti in January 2009, successful for the western part of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. In June 5th 2013 a similar code was adopted for the sub-region of West Africa by the heads of 22 states in Yaoundé (Cameroon). The Code was based on a Memorandum of Understanding and was developed by the IMO, the Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa (MOWCA), ECOWAS, the Economic Community of Central African States and the Gulf of Guinea(ECCAS), in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions 2018 (year 2011) and 2039 (year 2012). The Code is signed by Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, and Togo.

These countries emphasize the coordination of regional efforts to develop a comprehensive strategy to combat the threat of piracy and armed robbery at sea in order to prevent and suppress such criminal activities. In this sense, international assistance in the context of an overall strategy is needed to support the efforts at the national and regional levels to assist Member States in taking the necessary measures in respect of acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea and illegal activities. According to the results of effective cooperation of all interested States, the UN Security Council welcomes the initiatives already undertaken in collaboration with the African Union, the countries of the region and regional organizations, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Gulf of Guinea Commission (CGG) and the International Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) to improve the overall safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea.

Moreover, coordinated patrols by the authorities of Benin and Nigeria helped reduce attacks in parts of the Gulf of Guinea. Nevertheless, the International Maritime Bureau warns about the movement of pirates in the region, in the absence of monitoring. According to experts of the French international radio, in 2020 the production area of the Gulf of Guinea, the main reservoir of the continent, must exceed the Persian Gulf’s production. The UN believes that it is important to bring order to the local petrochemical industry in West Africa, as Nigeria today is not the only oil-producing country. The exploitation of offshore resources of countries like Ghana and Mauritania has already started or should in a very near future and therefore, control and specific surveillance should be strengthened, no matter how high or low is the price of the black gold. Otherwise, piracy will continue to grow and endanger sustainable development of the continent and that of its international partners.