Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Algiers (Agenzia Fides)- Drug trafficking in West Africa is connected with terrorism and other illegal activity. This emerged from a series of reports issued by international bodies such as the United Nations Office anti Drugs and Crime UNODC.
African governments, increasingly aware of this situation, are adopting measures to tackle the problem. One measures is to control the land which separates northern and west African countries, as vast desert area used by traffickers in arms and drugs, illegal immigrants and where various guerrilla and terrorist groups operate. Criminal gangs in this area are “extremely well organised and financed, and not only do they support terrorism, they are also involved in arms trafficking from countries where war had just ended. They are also involved in cocaine trafficking an activity connected with the transfer of illegal immigrants” said Amado Philip de Andres, UNODC adjunct director told Algerian newspaper La Tribune which published a long article on the question of trafficking through west Africa and the Maghreb. Algeria is concerned about the activity of Al Qaida in Islamic Maghreb, the group formed from the Algerian Salafita Group for Preaching and Combat, which aims to overthrow the Algerian government and destabilise the area between northern and west Africa.
The growing migratory flow from West Africa to the North hides, besides the drama of people in search of a better future, other criminal plans. Traffickers ask 14,000 euro for a “ticket” to opulent Europe. The majority of illegal migrants do not have the sum and accept to carry drugs. But the journey often comes to a tragic end halfway: more than 500 people died trying to reach the Canary Islands, according to Spanish government sources. This migratory flow is bound to grow. The population of West Africa at present 290 million, will grow to 430 million by 2025. What is more 45% is under 15 and lives in city slums, where the sense of traditional values and traditional bonds of solidarity are often lost. This makes these youngsters an easy prey for common and organised rime as well as fundamentalism.
The presence of criminal and fundamentalist organisations is now a consolidated reality. Nigerian mafia organisation sare fully inserted in world drug trafficking operating all over the world (recently Nigerian drug traffickers were arrested as far away as China). Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb is involved in cigarette trafficking and extortion in Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Colombian criminal gangs operate in Guinea Bissau and other countries in the area. Besides cocaine trafficking, these organisations smuggle counterfeit medicines such as Viagra, produced in illegal Nigerian and Ivorian laboratories
The response to these threats must be collaboration among the countries affected. In September the 8th meeting of anti-drug bodies in (Economic Community of West Africa) CEDEAO countries was held in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Another important structure is GIABA Inter-government Group anti-money-laundering and terrorism funding in West Africa. Recently in Portugal the EU opened a centre to control drug trafficking via the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, a structure which intends to coordinate with CEDEAO countries. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 3/10/2007 righe 45 parole 620)
