ANALYSIS: Nigerian pirates switch to kidnappings

Nigerian pirates kidnapped two government officials in Idabato, a Cameroonian border town in the Bakassi Peninsula, on 1 October 2024. One hostage, Ewane Ekeh, was released on 17 March, after six months in captivity in Nigeria. The second, Etongo Ismael, remains in captivity.

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Since 2021, counter piracy measures have been in place in the Bight of Biafra (or Bight of Bonny), an ocean region stretching from the Niger River mouth in Nigeria to Cape Lopez in Gabon. This has seen an overall decline in maritime piracy crime, compelling pirates to find alternative criminal activities to support themselves. They have focused primarily on hostage-taking for ransom, the crime to which Messrs Ekeh and Ismael fell victim.

A rise in hostage-taking incidents in the Bight of Biafra since October 2023 can be associated with its proximity to the Niger Delta, the epicentre of maritime crime in the region, where waters are largely ungoverned.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has reported the presence of Nigerian pirate camps in border areas near Cameroon. This was confirmed by Cameroon’s Delta Rapid Intervention Battalion (RIB) commander Colonel Ndikum Azieh, who said there were nine active Nigerian pirate groups operating in the Bakassi Peninsula.

Former captives and Cameroonian soldiers told the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) anonymously that the factions operating in the peninsula had established bases near Apka Irok – a Nigerian fishing village across from Kombo a Bedimo, Cameroon.

Niger Delta and Bakassi Peninsula

Source: ISS
These groups have well-developed hierarchical organisational structures. One group, comprising nearly 270 fighters and led by a ‘Border King’, is organised into nine operational units of about 30 men each, each overseen by a ‘general’. These Nigerian groups are known to operate well beyond their home bases, extending their reach to far-off waters, including those of Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Gabon.

When not actively engaged in pirating activities, they abduct locals in mangrove regions and on land. Mr Azieh said pirates adapted their tactics based on their targets. For lower-value targets – described as village women and children – kidnappings can happen anytime, often timed after army patrols have passed through an area.

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For high-value targets, like government officials, pirates gather intelligence and strike at night with swift boats and teams of around 10 armed with AK-47s or PKM 7.62 machine guns. The operations are usually completed within five minutes.

A Bakassi Peninsula municipal official told ISS anonymously that hostages were taken to remote mangroves in Nigeria or fisheries in the peninsula, making escape difficult.

This illicit industry generates substantial profits for criminal groups. Reports indicate that in Nigeria alone, approximately $400,000 was paid in ransom to kidnappers between July 2022 and June 2023. The money is divided among various role players, including kingpins, sponsors, group leaders, negotiators, specialised team members, assault teams, camp guards, and those providing onshore support.

Kidnapping is traumatic for the victims and their families. Moreover, due to the persistent threat, many administrative officials, service personnel and civil servants only stay intermittently on the Bakassi Peninsula, while their families live elsewhere for safety. Thus, they are frequently absent from their official duties, affecting essential services.

The kidnappings threaten both local and regional security. The area is a critical shipping zone and plays a vital role in the region’s transportation of goods, fishing activities, and extraction of hydrocarbon resources.

As with local officials, security forces are reluctant to confront the pirates. In Nigeria, security forces sometimes lack essential resources, like fuel, hampering their ability to address piracy effectively. In Cameroon, particularly in towns like Idabato, the police and gendarmerie units are severely understaffed.

Cameroon’s South-West Governor Bernard Bilai declared a total lockdown in the Bakassi Peninsula last October, but this angered local residents, who then couldn’t earn a living, and elevated tensions between Nigerian and Cameroonian residents in the area.

There is also an absence of effective cross-border cooperation at the tactical level. This is despite a robust political and strategic partnership established under the 2013 Yaoundé maritime security architecture, which created multinational centres for cooperation, information and intelligence sharing.

These security cooperation agreements have not cascaded to lower administrative and security units. RIB soldiers say they are unable to carry out operations against pirates who are often just across the border in Nigeria.

While Nigeria has honed its negotiating skills with kidnappers and criminal networks, other countries in the region don’t yet have the capacity to negotiate the release of hostages. For example, family sources say Mr Ekeh’s release took a while, despite attempts by the local negotiator and Cameroonian security forces.

In 2022, Nigeria enacted a law against paying ransoms, while Cameroon insists it ‘does not negotiate with terrorists.’ However, the reality that ransoms have been paid for the release of Western hostages creates a perception of double standards and fosters feelings of abandonment and hopelessness among local hostages’ families.

Mr Ekeh’s family and local journalists told ISS that his family managed to raise $100,000 from local residents, relatives, colleagues and local elites to pay his ransom.

Insecurity in the Bight of Biafra was recently heightened following an announcement by the Biafra Nations League (BNL) – a Nigerian secessionist armed group operating in north-eastern Nigeria and the Bakassi Peninsula – that it was launching significant operations in the area.

Faced with the continuation and possibly an increase in kidnapping for ransom by pirates and threats from the BNL, states along the Bight of Biafra must actively enforce existing bilateral and multilateral security arrangements.

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Ensuring these agreements are implemented at the level of local security and administrative units to allow for real-time cross-border security collaboration is imperative. Both policies and operations should aim to address a range of maritime crimes, such as piracy, sea robbery and kidnapping for ransom, akin to Nigeria’s Deep Blue Project.

Here, a regional legal framework allowing for the right of pursuit or creating a combined maritime task force would help foster cooperation across different operational maritime and coastal zones.

Raoul Sumo Tayo, Senior Researcher, ENACT, Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

A previous version of this article was published by the ISS ENACT project.

(This article was published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).