Violence Against Shippers New Norm Off West Africa
Associated Press (02/14/12)

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – The waters off West Africa's coast are now a constant danger for those shipping goods and crude oil in the region, analysts said Tuesday, a day after pirates killed two sailors near Nigeria's coast.

See more details of the attack here 

Anti-Piracy has become a growth industry in the last few years.  The current thinking in the maritime industry is that not enough is being done and more systems and support needs to be arranged to protect flagged vessels from Pirates. Here at TRM we have had to expand our own portfolio due to the high demand for appropriately trained and vetted Anti-Piracy operators.  We currently train our chaps in Anti-Piracy and Maritime Counter Terrorism Techniques at our training facility just outside Jo'burg in South Africa.  What we have learnt from experience is that Pirates prefer a soft target and with the use of "dickers" in all the major ports have a good system of pre-attack selection surveillance and tracking.

It really is not just East and North Africa anymore, the risks have ALWAYS been the same regardless of which side of the continent you ship.  Now, however, with more and more media interest, the risks of piracy are starting to get reported world-wide and more and more vessel owners are requesting the types of Anti-Piracy and Ship Security Services companies like TRM are supplying.