The focal point of global piracy is shifting to the Gulf of Guinea with a spurt of attacks in West African countries such as Nigeria even as the menace has ebbed in Asia and around the Gulf of Aden, shipping industry executives and insurance brokers said. Restrictions on the use of private armed guards on board ships passing through the Gulf of Guinea strategically limits the ability to tackle the menace but new initiatives are being taken which can help turn around the situation, they said. “Curbing piracy in [the] Gulf of Aden was a success story but the problem is not going away and instead increasing in the Gulf of Guinea due to the severe unrest in Nigeria,” Intertanko’s regional manager for Asia, Tim Wilkins said at an international shipping seminar in Singapore Friday. The Gulf of Guinea accounted for seven of the world’s 10 kidnapping incidents on […]