China helping to fight piracy off Africa

China is calling upon the international community to support West African nations in combating the rising piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf of Guinea, said Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the United Nations and president of the UN Security Council for the month of April.

On the evening of April 11, pirates attacked a cargo vessel off the coast of Nigeria and boarded with force, he said. The captain and some of the crew hid in a protected space, only to discover when they emerged the following day that two members of the crew were missing.

As of Monday they were still missing, as China, together with Angola and Senegal, held an open debate titled Peace Consolidation in West Africa: Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea in the Gulf of Guinea at UN headquarters in New York. The forum provided some sobering information.

Since 2011, the region has been victim to frequent incidents of piracy, threatening the safety of navigation and inflicting billions of dollars in economic losses on the countries along the gulf.

Most recently, the scope of pirate attacks has been further spreading northward to Guinea and southward to the waters off Angola. The numbers of hostages and ransom amounts demanded have also been increasing.

The attack on the evening of April 11 was not the first pirate attack of the year, nor even the first attack that day.

Earlier that day, pirates had attacked a Turkish cargo ship in the gulf, kidnapping six of the crew, including the vessel's captain. Those men are also still missing.

Countries in the region lack the resources to fight the pirates, the forum was told. Counter-piracy coordination mechanisms in the region are underfunded. The countries do not have the capacity to maintain maritime safety and security, and their port facilities are unable to provide logistical support for large-scale military operations at sea.

China has provided the coastal countries with patrol vessels and has been actively building ports in Nigeria, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire. China is calling on the international community to join the effort by holding an open debate. It has been four years since the Security Council has had a session dedicated to the issue.

"The international community should take an active part in the construction, operation and maintenance of ports among other infrastructures," said Liu. "It is also necessary to help the coastal countries strengthen the training of their maritime security forces and provide them with necessary equipment such as vessels and radar systems."

Liu suggested that the nearly 30 countries represented at the debate continue to support international organizations including the UN and the International Maritime Organization and regional bodies such as the African Union and Economic Community of West African States.

"The integrated strategy for counterpiracy by increasing financial and technical input into institution-building in the fight against piracy ensures full, effective and sustainable operation of the relevant mechanisms," he said.

Liu also said that economic development on land is a weapon against piracy at sea. "The international community should increase assistance to the coastal states in light of their economic and social development plans, help them eradicate poverty, speed economic and social development and improve employment," he said.

In all, "cooperation for counterterrorism should be strengthened, international organized crime combated, links that connect pirates with terrorist organizations and illegal armed groups severed and channels for drug trafficking and financial blocked," he said.

The open debate ended on an upbeat note with the adoption of a presidential statement, stressing the importance of addressing underlying causes of piracy and strengthening the justice systems and judicial cooperation in the region.

The African Union is scheduled to hold a summit on maritime security and development in October in Lom, Togo.

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com