375 acts of maritime piracy and robbery were recorded worldwide in 2020 by the MICA Center, compared to 360 in 2019. MICA Center’s 2020 annual report outlines a slight upward trend of maritime insecurity.
French Ministry of the Armed Forces press release
Considering MICA Center’s 2020 annual report, the Gulf of Guinea remains the most dangerous maritime area in the world in spite of the efforts of Nigeria and coastal countries, and acts of piracy now extend from Ghana to Equatorial Guinea. In South East Asia, robbery is on the rise, particularly in the Straits of Singapore and Malacca. The number of robbery acts in Latin America remains high against maritime trade and pleasure boating.
Promoting information exchange and cooperation among the different maritime actors remains more necessary than ever in order to guarantee security and freedom of shipping overseas.
With a worldwide scope, the Maritime Information Cooperation and Awareness Center (MICA Center) is the French center of expertise dedicated to maritime security. Based within the Atlantic Maritime Prefecture at Brest, the MICA Center was founded in 2016 to address the strategic issues raised by threats to the security of maritime areas.
The center is operated by about thirty men and women belonging to the French Navy and navies of partner countries, and is monitoring 24/7 the worldwide maritime traffic.
The MICA Center is an analysis and assessment center of the maritime security situation, but it is also a central warning unit should an attack at sea occur: it collects and relays useful information to the benefit of partners who subscribe to its free services.
This annual report synthesizes the reports that are regularly transmitted to the maritime industry actors; its goal is to provide an analysis of the trends observed and to describe the evolution of the operating modes.
