Gambia Joins Comoros and Others in False Flag Crackdown

Gambia’s maritime administration has begun removing tankers flagged through its privately run ship registry, reports Maritime AI data analytics firm Windward. It says the effort is part of a broader crackdown on weak governance and follows similar efforts by other governments against false flag and shadow fleet tankers.

Windward’s analysis says that there are 20 tankers now listed in the IMO’s database as falsely flagged with Gambia in the International Maritime Organization’s database. Gambia it notes has reportedly deflagged 72 ships for fraudulently issued certificates, according to public reports. That number, however, is yet to appear in IMO records, which still list 104 ships flying Gambia’s flag, including nearly 40 dark-fleet tankers.

According to Windward, Gambia played a central role in facilitating Russian oil shipments after outsourcing management of its international registry to a private contractor in mid-2023. The flag expanded by more than 1,000 percent in 12 months, jumping from fewer than 40 domestic vessels totaling 47,000 gross tons to more than 110 ships of 2.1 million tons by mid-2025. Growth came largely from sanctioned tankers within the dark fleet.

Gambia’s move against the shadow fleet follows similar steps by Comoros, which began removing more than 60 tankers in July that it determined were falsely flying its flag.

Tankers flying the Gambia and Sierra Leone flags — both run by the same private contractor in Cyprus — made up 40 percent of all tanker calls at Russia’s Baltic ports between October 1 and November 10, according to Windward analysis. Falsely flagged ships accounted for an additional 19 percent, putting more than two-thirds of tanker traffic through the Baltic Sea during that period under minimal governance or regulatory oversight.

Flag-hopping to avoid due diligence and regulatory scrutiny reached new highs in the third quarter of 2025, reports Windward. As an example, it cites several Gambia-flagged ships that cycled through as many as five other flags within six months. One tanker, Windward reports, that was previously flagged to Gambia has already shifted to Cameroon — its fifth flag since February.

Despite pressure from the EU and UK, Windward notes that there are more than 550 sanctioned, Russia-trading vessels that are now active, and Windward has identified 17 fraudulent registries servicing them.

“Gambia’s actions mark meaningful progress, but hundreds of sanctioned tankers continue to exploit an expanding network of fraudulent registries,” says Windward. “For now, the dark fleet remains more agile than the regulatory system designed to oversee it,” they concluded.