What this document is
This Chatham House report documents a conference held in London on 6 December 2012, a follow-up to an earlier meeting held aboard HMS Dauntless in Luanda that June. Ambassador Florentina Adenike Ukonga, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Gulf of Guinea Commission, gave the keynote address, after which two panel sessions covered the region's security challenges and the state of institutional cooperation among its governments.
Piracy and oil theft off Nigeria dominated the discussion, alongside illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the broader question of how coastal states could pool resources against threats that cross national waters freely. Delegates came from the Gulf of Guinea Commission, the Nigerian Navy, the International Maritime Organization, INTERPOL, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the UN Department of Political Affairs, giving the room a mix of regional operators and outside institutions with a stake in West African shipping lanes.
Chris Vandome of Chatham House's Africa Programme wrote up the report, published in March 2013 in partnership with the African Studies Centre at Coventry University, which co-hosted the event.
Where to find it
Available from Chatham House.