'W African drug smuggling aids extremists'
2013-02-01 10:24
-
Nigeria
How Ethnic Rivalry and Religious Fundamentalism Threatens Africa's Most Populous Nation
Was R342.95
Now R308.66
buy now
Accra - Ex-UN chief Kofi Annan said Thursday that drug
smuggling in west Africa had aided extremists in a region where Islamists had
taken control of northern Mali and risked destabilising other nations.
Annan made the comments as he launched a commission to study
the problem in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
Convened by Annan and chaired by former Nigerian president
Olusegun Obasanjo, the West African Commission on Drugs will release a report
by the end of the year with recommendations for how narcotics trafficking from
South American through West Africa can be checked.
"In West Africa there is evidence that drug traffickers
have linked up with extremist groups," he said. "All of these
developments threaten the stability of our region as we have witnessed so
graphically in Mali in recent weeks."
According to Annan, "the linkages between smugglers,
criminal gangs and extremists along the coast and all the way through the
Sahara is now evident for all to see.
"It's also been clear over the past couple of years
there has been hostage-taking in the Sahel, cigarette smuggling and drugs are
also involved. So I think what is happening in Mali cannot be seen in
isolation. There is a threat to the whole region."
Chronic instability in Guinea-Bissau has made the country an
attractive destination for South American druglords seeking a hub to move
cocaine into Europe.
Manufacturing and consuming zone
Annan said the international community tends to ignore such
problems until they spill over into other countries.
"We ignored Somalia for 20 years until it came back to
bite us in the form in central piracy," Annan said. "In a way, we are
doing the same with Guinea-Bissau ... we've allowed it to fester."
West Africa has long been known to be a trans-shipment point
for cocaine and other drugs coming from South America.
Recently however concerns have been raised about whether
extremist groups wreaking havoc in the region - most notably Islamist groups in
northern Mali - may run drugs to pay for their activities.
Obasanjo said drug cartels are now also selling to and
producing drugs in west Africa.
"We have ceased to be just a transit zone. We have
become a manufacturing zone and a consuming zone," Obasanjo said.
