United Nations — A brand new report from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launched Friday highlights a dramatic improve in drug seizures within the West African Sahel area, underscoring its rising position as a key route for narcotics trafficking, significantly cocaine.
The findings present a big escalation, with cocaine seizures in Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Niger hovering to 1,466 kilograms (3,232 kilos) in 2022, up from an annual common of simply 13 kilograms (28.7 kilos) between 2013 and 2020.
This surge in drug trafficking is essentially attributed to the Sahel’s strategic location south of the Sahara Desert, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, making it an excellent transit level for South American cocaine destined for European markets.
The report coincides with a latest announcement from Senegal, which borders the Sahel, of a record-breaking land seizure of 1,137 kilograms of cocaine valued at $146 million close to an artisanal mine within the east of the nation.
This seizure is a part of a development of accelerating drug incidents within the area, together with a big operation by the Senegalese navy in December final 12 months, which captured 3 tons of cocaine at sea.
According to Amado Philip de Andrés, UNODC Regional Representative in West and Central Africa, the involvement of assorted armed teams within the drug commerce is exacerbating the already fragile safety scenario within the Sahel.
“The drug trade provides financial resources to armed groups in the Sahel, where Islamic extremist networks have flourished as the region struggles with a recent spate of coups,” de Andrés acknowledged.
The report additionally highlights rising traits within the area, equivalent to the rise in native drug markets and consumption.
Lucia Bird, director of the West Africa Observatory of illicit economies on the Global Initiative towards Transnational Organized Crime, famous, “We’ve had reports of rising crack cocaine consumption in Agadez, Niger, driven by payment in kind.
Smaller traffickers get paid in drugs and offload it onto local markets because they don’t have the contacts in more lucrative consumption destinations.”
Additionally, progressive trafficking strategies have emerged, such because the direct trade of Moroccan cannabis for South American cocaine, which bypasses the necessity for money funds and exploits worth variations throughout continents. This technique has elevated the quantity of medicine trafficked overland via a few of the most conflict-affected areas of the Sahel.
The report additionally factors to corruption and cash laundering as vital enablers of the drug commerce within the area, with latest seizures and arrests implicating political elites, group leaders, and leaders of armed teams.
Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa, emphasised the necessity for pressing, coordinated, and complete motion by Sahel states and the worldwide group to dismantle these networks and handle the foundation causes of drug trafficking within the area.
https://www.africanexponent.com/drug-trafficking-soars-in-the-west-african-sahel-region-u-n-report-reveals/
