Piracy Slowly Rises in Western Africa

The trends in African piracy are changing, though not as quickly or as dramatically as media reports suggest. Western Africa's Gulf of Guinea and eastern Africa's Gulf of Aden remain the continent's major areas of pirate operation, but since 2012 attacks have become more common in the west than in the east. This development is explained less by a marked increase in West Africa, where attacks have risen only slowly and steadily, and more by a sharp decrease in East African piracy. More important, these trends are determined partly by the capabilities and opportunities afforded to the pirates operating in each region as well as the constraints under which they operate.