Og tænketank kalder konflikten i det vestafrikanske Sahel-land en “alarmklokke” om omsiggribende kriminalitet i stor stil og voksende transporter af narkotika gennem regionen, som gør hele nationer sårbare for ekstremister.
ACCRA, 5 February 2013 (IRIN): At the launch of a Ghana-based Commission on the Impact of Drug-Trafficking (narkohandel /transit) on Governance, Security and Development in West Africa, its chair, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, said the situation in Mali should serve as a “wake-up call” to the perils of allowing organized crime to escalate out of control.
He described the country’s north as a “den (hule /røverrede) of drug trafficking, extremism and criminality”.
Several research groups have reported that traffickers have linked up with extremist groups in the Sahel region, who use the profits to purchase weapons and fund radical activities.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has partially funded its activities in northern Mali over the past decade through profits from drug and cigarette trafficking and hostage ransoms (løsepenge), according to a 2012 report by the African Center for Strategic Studies.
West Africa- a hub for cocaine
Analysts estimate around 60 tons of cocaine are trafficked through West Africa each year, while the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates 400 kg of heroin was trafficked through the region in 2011.
The trade brings in an estimated 900 million US dollar per year to criminal networks, says UNODC.
Some 15 percent of the cigarettes smoked in the region are bought on the black market and trafficked through West Africa, according to UNODC.
AQIM and to some extent splinter-group Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) have been taxing traffickers in return for safeguarding their passage.
“Organized criminal networks are deeply involved in the trafficking. Experience elsewhere in the world suggests that these groups will try to infiltrate political, security and financial institutions to secure their profits,” former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the audience at the launch of the Commission in Ghana’s capital last week.
Over the last decade many West African states have made gains to consolidate peace and economic growth: the region is set to provide the US with 25 percent of its oil needs in 2015 – but drug-trafficking threatens this progress, said Annan.
Most of the cocaine is transported from South America to Europe, using air and sea routes; while opiates (opiumsprodukter) tend to come from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Drugs are also increasingly being manufactured in the region. The police recently discovered methamphetamine laboratories in Nigeria, according to UNODC.
Growing drug dependency
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