Vessels claiming registration under a fraudulent or nonexistent flag can undermine basic checks that support maritime trade, including enforceable flag-state oversight and the ability to confirm insurance and class status, maritime analytics firm Windward warned.
Madagascar has now flagged a jump in bogus ship registrations after authorities identified nine vessels presenting documents in the country’s name. Port authorities notified the International Maritime Organization that the ships—spanning general cargo vessels and small product, LPG and crude tankers—were using paperwork implying Madagascan registration even though Madagascar does not run an international registry.
The alert places Madagascar among a growing list of African flags exploited by operators seeking to conceal vessel origins through forged documents and false flag claims.
Across 2025, more than 300 shadow-fleet tankers involved in sanctioned Iranian, Venezuelan or Russian oil trades moved onto fraudulent flags, often following repeated flag hopping, according to Windward data. The most commonly used fraudulent registries were Guinea (51 ships), Netherlands Antilles (45), Guyana (44) and Aruba (24).
The same dataset indicates about 120 Russia-trading tankers longer than 180 m broadcast flags linked to 19 fraudulent registries, including Botswana, Guyana, Guinea and Madagascar.
The issue has been repeatedly linked to the rapid expansion of several African registries alongside the growth of the shadow fleet moving Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan cargoes globally.
Last week, Splash reported that Cameroon’s government has begun tightening controls on shadow ships using its register. Cameroon’s flag expanded by 126% over the past 12 months and is now Africa’s third-largest, according to Clarksons Research, driven largely by Russian-linked tonnage. The average age of vessels flying Cameroon’s flag is 32.7 years. Cameroon’s prime minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, has moved to remove dark-fleet tonnage, suspending new registrations of suspected shadow-fleet ships and starting steps to deregister those already listed.
