Alarming trend of drug crime in West, Central Africa: UN

DRUG trafficking, drug use and other crimes are threatening to disrupt and destabilise West and Central Africa, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

On Wednesday, the executive director of UNODC, Yuri Fedotov, told the UN Security Council in New York that, in these regions, his organisation had registered new alarming trends on drug trafficking, which were disruptive and destabilising for governance, security, economic growth and public health.

This session, presided over by Cote d’Ivoire, was the council’s first thematic meeting on drug trafficking and its threat to stability and peace and security, since December 2013.

The head of UNODC noted increasing transiting of opiates through West Africa, en route to European and North American markets. The UN agency said West and Central Africa, along with North Africa, accounted for 87% of all pharmaceutical opiates – derived from opium poppies – seized globally.

Methamphetamine seizures have almost reached the same levels as cocaine seizures.

As for heroin trafficking, it is also on the rise, with seizures across the region, especially in the airports of Lagos in Nigeria, Accra in Ghana and Cotonou in Benin, closely followed by Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, Lome in Togo and Bamako in Mali, the UN said.

The rise of drug use in the region also represents a serious threat to public health. UNDOC estimates that in 2016, there were more than 34 million cannabis users and

1.8 million cocaine users in West and Central Africa. Only one in 18 drug users with addiction issues has access to medical treatment.

Other looming crime and security threats in the region include arms trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking, smuggling of migrants, cybercrime, maritime piracy and threats posed by terrorism, for example in the Lake Chad Basin. |