71 Fishermen Left Adrift in Gulf of Guinea After Pirates Steal Outboards
Ghana's armed forces intervened to save 71 fishermen from an attack by unknown assailants off the country's coast, officials confirmed on Thursday. The news was first reported by Vanguard Tech and confirmed by the AP.
On Wednesday night, armed pirates robbed at least four fishing vessels at a location in the Gulf of Guinea, just off the coast of Senya Bereku. The assailants successfully stole the outboard motors off the fishing boats and departed the scene. The fishermen were left adrift overnight, unable to get back to shore.
On Thursday morning, Ghana's navy and air force launched a search and rescue operation to find and retrieve the victims. As of Thursday, officials said that they had rescued 71 fishermen, and added that the search effort was still under way.
Patrols have been upped in the area to monitor for any further suspicious activity, and an investigation into the identity of the perpetrators is under way.
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The mass robbery is a rare instance of crime targeting artisanal fishermen at a multi-vessel scale. Petty crime at sea is not uncommon in the Gulf of Guinea, but ambitious attacks of any form have largely tailed off over the past five years, driven down by international intervention and a regional recognition that piracy was raising the cost of shipping.
Tensions between Ghanaians and the fishing fleet have been high for years, but have generally centered on distant-water trawlers and the Chinese-owned fish meal plants that these industrial fishing vessels generally serve. Local activists and fishermen allege that intense fishing pressure from foreign operators is depleting local stocks and ruining the livelihoods of artisanal fishermen.