Fake Botswana flags first spotted on ships in January – IMO
Mbongeni Mguni - Innocent Selatlhwa | Friday April 17, 2026 12:26
While S&P Global is the credit ratings agency that lowered the country’s sovereign credit rating to one notch above junk status last month, it is unlikely that the fraudulent flags had anything to do with the decision.
S&P, as a credit ratings agency, frequently keeps its radar on any and all activities involving countries and their prospects, as part of research and intelligence. However, the actual ratings action is based on an assessment of public finances, forecasts in the short to medium term and the plans government has made going forward.
Mmegi can reveal that the UN agency, known as the International Maritime Organisation or IMO, was first alerted to the fraudulent flags in January. Since then the agency has picked a total of 17 ships flying under the Botswana flag, despite the fact that the country is not only landlocked, but has no registry for ships.
“Botswana-flagged” ships were reported as crossing the troubled Strait of Hormuz before the US blockade with attempts even made after, a development analysts have said risks the country’s international good standing.
An IMO report made available by the organisation to Mmegi shows that local authorities were contacted formally in February about the issue.
“In January 2026, S&P Global contacted the Secretariat regarding two ships suddenly broadcasting Botswana details via AIS,” the IMO document reads. “The Ministry of Transport and Communications of Botswana confirmed that the country did not operate any registry of ships. “There are 17 ships fraudulently flying the flag of Botswana as of the date of this document.”
Questions sent to the Ministry of Transport and Communications last week and followed up on this week, were yet to be responded to by press time. Mmegi has also reached out to other authorities in government but to no avail.
An IMO spokesperson told Mmegi that Botswana’s challenges were centred around the Automatic Identification System (AIS), a tracking system used on ships and by maritime authorities to improve safety and manage traffic at sea. The AIS automatically broadcasts information about a vessel such as ship name and identification number, position (via GPS), speed and course as well as destination and estimated arrival time.
Fraudsters, including those carrying sanctioned cargo or venturing into conflict areas such as the Strait of Hormuz, have increasingly been broadcasting falsified AIS data, which involves the intentional manipulation of AIS data to materially alter the ship's identifying information or to reflect the AIS data of an entirely different vessel.
This past week, ships allegedly bearing the flags of Botswana, Malawi and even Zimbabwe, were alleged to be attempting to cross the troubled Strait, or where picked as being elsewhere on the oceans, whilst all countries are landlocked.
Malawi and Zimbabwe have previously raised the fraudulent flags as concerns to the IMO.
“Fraudulent ship registration and fraudulent ship registries has been a key challenge that IMO has been addressing,” an IMO spokesperson told Mmegi in response to enquiries.
While Botswana has been a member of the IMO since October 2021, the country rarely attends the organisation’s meetings where issues such as fraudulent flags are discussed.
Meanwhile, a meeting of IMO’s Legal Committee, which, amongst other matters, deals with issues concerning unlawful activities at sea, kicked off on April 13 and is due to wrap up on 17 April 2026 at the organisation’s headquarters in London.