West Africa 'becoming drug hub'
2008-10-28 14:08
Praia - West Africa is in danger of becoming a hub of the international trade in drugs, the head of the United Nations anti-drug unit warned on Tuesday.
The region "is at risk of becoming an epicentre for drug trafficking and the crime and corruption associated with it," said Antonio Maria Costa, director general of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in Praia, capital of the West African island state of Cape Verde.
"Time is running out, the threat is spreading throughout the region," he said in a statement issued shortly before the opening of a conference on drugs and security in the region jointly organised by UNODC and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The statement said that seizures of cocaine were doubling each year: 1 323kg in 2005, 3 161kg in 2006, 6 456kg in 2007.
"At least 50 tons of cocaine from the Andean countries are transiting West Africa every year, heading north where they are worth almost $2bn on the streets of European cities," according to an UNODC report released in Praia.
Costa called on the international community to help West African countries regain control of their coasts and airspace and to set up special police units to investigate organised crime and drug-trafficking.
He also advocated the creation of a regional intelligence-sharing centre.
"Most cocaine entering Africa from South America makes landfall around Guinea-Bissau in the north and Ghana in the south. Much of the drugs are shipped to Europe by 'mules' on commercial flights," UNODC said.
"According to seizure data, the majority of air couriers seem to be coming from Guinea (Conakry), Mali, Nigeria and Senegal, destined for France, Spain and the United Kingdom (Britain). Upon arrival, the cocaine is predominantly distributed by West African criminal networks throughout Europe."
The UN agency said that narco-trafficking through a vulnerable region that had never previously faced a drugs problem was perverting weak economies.
"It is also corrupting senior officials and poisoning the youth by spreading addiction and criminality."
Interior and justice ministers from the 15 ECOWAS states are due to adopt Wednesday an action plan against the growing traffic in narcotics.
- AFP