Baroness Williams of Crosby
Main Page: Baroness Williams of Crosby (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Williams of Crosby's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(10 years, 2 months ago)
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Baroness Anelay of St Johns
My Lords, I agree entirely with the noble Lord. The only thing that I would add is simply the figures. He refers to the amount of theft of oil in Nigeria. Conservative estimates indicate that up to 100,000 barrels of oil a day are stolen in Nigeria.
Baroness Williams of Crosby (LD)
My Lords, last year I lectured on a cruise that went round the west coast of Africa and was surrounded briefly by a number of pirate ships. It was quite striking how very different the coast off Somalia was to the coast that came before that, because as many people will know it was guarded and protected by the gathering of European navies to take responsibility for safety in that area. I very much agree with the remark made by the noble Lord, Lord West. Is there no way in which the Commonwealth could work together with the International Maritime Organization to extend that kind of protection further down that extremely dangerous coast?
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The noble Baroness makes a very valid point. I would be happy to look at that further.