UN reports ‘alarming’ trends in drug trafficking in Africa
Posted December 19, 2018 8:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The U.N. drugs and crime chief says his office is registering “new, alarming trends” in drug trafficking in western and central Africa that are destabilizing the ability to govern, security, economic growth and public health.
Yuri Fedotov told the Security Council on Wednesday that criminal networks have expanded their activities from transporting cocaine and heroin through Africa to Europe and other destinations and are now engaged in trafficking other opioids.
He said the 2018 report from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime which he heads shows 87 per cent of pharmaceutical opioids seized globally came from western and central Africa along with North Africa.
Fedotov says that “this is largely due to rising use of tramadol, an opioid painkiller that is widely trafficked for non-medical use in the region.”
The Associated Press
