The circulation of drugs is becoming more and more noticeable in West Africa. These black market products, although forbidden to be marketed, subtly infiltrate suitcases and shipments in West Africa. Seizures of cocaine here, cannabis there; West Africa has positioned itself in recent years as a transit and consumption market for all types of drugs.
The question rings in the hearts of many. Has West Africa become the platform for the circulation of drugs? Indeed, narcotics are psychotropic or psychoactive substances that disturb the human central nervous system. Thus, they disturb not only our perception of things, but also our behavior and our thoughts. There are many drugs: cocaine, cannabis, heroin, Indian hemp… West Africa, with its many seizures, seems to be positioning itself as a marketing and consumption area. Nevertheless, it must be recognized that drug trafficking is not an extraordinary phenomenon. But it is the figures for the last few years that are worrying. First, according to the United Nations, approximately 50 tons of cocaine destined for the European market pass through the Gulf of Guinea each year. Then there is tramadol, a major painkiller that is increasingly invading West African countries.
A growing market?
In Benin, the phenomenon is becoming very recurrent. While in 2021, the quantity of a single seizure in a warehouse in Sèmè kpodji was 2.5 tons. The special prosecutor of the Court of Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) announced some time later that 750 kg of cocaine had been discovered in Cotonou. In 2019, 78 tons of various drugs were shipped from Uruguay to Europe via Benin. If sometimes small quantities are intercepted at airports, large shipments are delivered via the ports.
In Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on February 25, 2021, 1.5 tons of cocaine from Latin America was seized by the national gendarmerie.
In addition, more than two tons of cocaine were arrested in the port of Dakar (Senegal), three tons of Indian hemp in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, 800 grams of cocaine in Yaoundé in Cameroon in 2021.
In Niger on January 02, 200kg of cocaine were discovered in a car of the town hall of Fachi. The two suspects (the mayor and his driver), are believed to have transported the product to Libya after it was smuggled into the country from Mali.
To name but a few, one could believe that West Africa is truly becoming a hub for drug trafficking.
A multi-level responsibility
According to the latest estimates of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), recent cocaine seizures in West Africa, including Benin, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Gambia and Senegal, reach 42 tons between 2019 and 2021. Such a large quantity of drugs circulating freely in West Africa without anyone being concerned. In fact, these alarming statistics clearly show an increase in drug use in Africa.
On the other hand, it is safe to say that the security system at ports and airports is deficient? or could one suspect a certain complicity between the drug traffickers and the authorities? Otherwise, how can we explain the trajectory of the drug from one country to another without any seizure.
Wouldn’t African justice have something to do with it? We are often aware of drug cases before the courts, but is the follow-up given to these cases repressive?
And when politicians get involved, a whole scenario is fed to deceive the population. In other words, your political affiliation can work in your favor in case of abuses. All this calls into question an effective fight against drug trafficking in West Africa.
To slow down or even eradicate trafficking, a consensus among West African leaders will first be needed. Because a country alone cannot effectively fight against the phenomenon because it is a circuit. Likewise, customs controls must be strengthened and law enforcement must be allowed to do its job properly.
