THOMAS HIRENEE ATENGA, Paris | Monday 11.00pm.
DRUG production and abuse are on the increase in Africa, and so is money laundering, according to a new report by a Paris-based institution that monitors illegal substances.
The Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues (OGD – Geopolitical Observatory for Drugs) says in a new report that a trend observed since the end of the 1980s – that Africa is becoming an increasingly important hub in the international drug trade – has been confirmed.
More and more cannabis is being grown in all regions of Africa in response to the economic crisis in general, and the crisis in the agriculture sector in particular. Armed conflicts in many Sub-Saharan African countries have also encouraged drug trafficking, the report says.
“Africa is no longer just a drug transit point because of its porous borders, but a large production and consumption area,” says the OGD, which notes that South Africa has a top slot in drug production, consumption and trafficking in Africa.
Of the 54.3 ton of cannabis seized in Africa last year by customs officials, 47 tons came from South Africa. Cannabis is grown worldwide on some 35000 hectares which can yield a total of 22140 tonnes with a street value of more than $US4.2 billion.
Growing cannabis is the sole means of livelihood for most peasant farmers in Kwazulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape in South Africa, the report says.
In countries with armed conflicts, drugs have been grown to finance wars. Conflicts such as those in Angola, the Casamance region of Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa and Sudan have been financed with drug money, it says.
The expansion of drug cultivation threatens the development of legal agricultural prodction, which tend to be supplanted by the illegal narcotics. This endangers the supply of food to towns and the survival of cash crops.
Generally, the economic crisis in Africa has created such disenchantment that many people see drugs as the main way out, with, drug cultivation and money laundering gradually becoming a development model, the report says. — IPS