Countering crime in Africa's maritime domain: law enforcement and environmental contamination threat intervention

Crime in the maritime domain has evolved over the past two decades. Its changing face has been influenced by interventions both on land and at sea. This paper ruminates on the interventions applied in combating the phenomenon of maritime crime in the seas off the coasts of Africa, with the focus on law enforcement and the fomenting potential for environmental despoilation. In probing challenges to law enforcement, the paper examines the impact of weak law enforcement when dealing with specific maritime crimes and reveals that to be effective, despite the omnipresent need for swift and decisive policing intercession, any maritime piracy interdiction algorithm/model should fully embrace environmental pollution prevention and mitigation protocols. The influence of statistics and perceptions to the way in which a situation in a particular area is understood or interpreted is also broached. The paper concludes by proffering actionable solutions to the various challenges encountered by maritime policing.