Rethinking Contemporary (Counter)Piracy: Lessons from the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Guinea

With the first ransom payment successfully collected by Somali pirates since 2012, the hijacking of the MV Abdullah in November 2023 underscores the persistent threat of piracy off Somalia’s coast. Similarly, the 2025 attack on the cargo vessel Orange Frost in the Gulf of Guinea, in which seven pirates boarded the ship, injuring one crew member and kidnapping another, shows that while attacks have reduced in recent years, piracy remains a tangible threat in African waters. The renewed risk of piracy in these two regions calls for a critical reassessment of existing and future counter-piracy frameworks. This article, focusing on two often-overlooked connections, identifies key blind spots continuing to undermine current approaches to counter-piracy. First, it examines shortcomings in onshore governance of Somali waters, arguing that these persistent gaps ‘on land’ are central to the persistent risk of a resurgence in piracy. As long as these governance shortcomings remain unaddressed, at sea and on land, some of the structural conditions that enable piracy will persist. Second, the article turns to a related but distinct blind spot: the criminal networks that sustain piracy. Focusing on the Niger Delta, where piracy operations in the Gulf of Guinea are widely understood to originate, the article highlights the existence of a broader criminal economy in which pirates operate and which serves to sustain them between attacks. Rather than narrating a decline in piracy, the article reveals how this criminal infrastructure continues to provide fertile ground for piracy’s potential return. Together, these cases contribute to the land-sea debate by demonstrating how governance shortcomings and criminal linkages remain critical enablers of piracy – especially when maritime counter-piracy efforts are diverted or stretched thin.