Europe targets shadow fleet tankers falsely using Cameroon flag, sources say

PARIS/LONDON, July 2 – Europe is taking tougher action against tankers falsely using Cameroon’s flag registry to transport Russian oil, including boarding vessels at sea, prompting Cameroon to dump 39 such vessels from its ship registry, according to officials and documents.

On June 8 the EU expanded the mandate of Operation IRINI, its naval mission in the Mediterranean, and can now stop, board, detain and inspect ships suspected of belonging to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”. Moscow condemned the move.

Russia has used such tankers, which are typically older and lack known Western insurance or safety certification, to skirt sanctions by sailing under the flags of various nations to obscure their true ownership, cargo and movements.

Three tankers boarded and inspected by IRINI in recent weeks, the Nelsa, the Oneiroi and the Sandhya, were found to be using fraudulent Cameroonian registration, according to two European military sources.

Nine other ships have been seized by the French, Belgian, British and Swedish navies since the start of 2026, including five with Cameroonian flags.

Cameroon has warned in recent months that its registry has been misused by shadow fleet tankers transporting Russian oil.

In a letter seen by Reuters sent to the U.N. shipping agency dated June 16, Cameroon’s government said an official investigation revealed several vessels were unlawfully operating under the country’s flag and that two websites were fraudulently being used to assign the flag to ships.

The government said it had de-listed 39 ships as a consequence.

The central African country has emerged as one of the biggest conduits for fraudulent shipping in recent years, prompting the United Arab Emirates in 2024 to bar Cameroon-flagged ships from calling at its ports unless they have top-tier safety certification.

Cameroon is “cooperating with international authorities and organisations to enforce maritime rules, protect the credibility of its naval registry, and fight against irregular registrations,” its transport ministry said in a statement to Reuters this week.

It added that Cameroon could not be held responsible for the activities of any vessel after de-registration.

The latest shadow fleet tanker seized was the Deliver, detained by the French navy on June 25 after being intercepted near Sicily, while sailing under a Cameroonian flag despite having been removed from the country’s registry.

TOUGHER MANDATE

The EU is preparing a further round of sanctions for mid-July in part targeting the shadow fleet.    “The idea is to change the best practices, what different countries are doing with those ships, because it is really posing a danger, and of course also the idea is to curb Russia from the funding of this war,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said last month.

The latest EU sanctions package, which could be adopted in July, would see 30 more vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet listed and expand the listing criteria to vessels involved in refuelling sanctioned ships or offloading cargo, European officials have said.    The risks such vessels pose include the safety of seafarers and of the environment should vessels not comply with maintenance requirements or break up at sea, as happened with two Russian coastal oil tankers in the Black Sea in late 2024. REUTERS