Drug trafficking through West Africa is deepening addiction and straining public resources in some of the world’s poorest countries, used to transit contraband towards Europe.

The United Nations sounded the alarm last year that smuggling through the Sahel — a semi-arid region below the Sahara where poverty and armed groups are rife — was on the rise, noting an increase in large-scale cocaine seizures in recent years.

But government officials, doctors and researchers told AFP such trafficking — in addition to providing money for criminal groups — leads to contraband spilling over into the local market in low-income countries, where treatment options are sparse.

“Once it finds its way into the system, even if the rationale behind it is to export it to other countries, some will find itself within the country,” said Alexander Twum Barimah, deputy director general of the Narcotics Control Commission in Ghana.

West Africa has long been “a natural stopover” for drugs — mostly cocaine from Latin America — making their way to North Africa and Europe, mostly through maritime routes but increasingly overland, a 2024 report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) noted.

Heroin and meth from Asia also pass through the region, en route from east and southern Africa towards Europe, according to the UN.

While drug profits are higher in Europe, some contraband ends up diverted along the way, notably when low-level traffickers are paid in-kind, experts say.

According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), as much as 30 per cent of Europe’s cocaine could be transiting through West Africa, as routes from South America come under pressure from law enforcement and European demand rises.

The problem of drug abuse is not new in West Africa, and some drugs, including cannabis and meth, are produced locally.

But countries in the region can hardly handle the influx from trafficking.

According to 2019 UN data, 14.4 per cent of Nigerians aged between 15 and 64 years had used drugs in the past year — more than double the global average of 5.6 per cent.

That figure is expected to keep rising, Akanidomo Ibanga, Nigeria country project officer for the UNODC, told AFP, due to trafficking, the proliferation of conflict and a booming youth population facing a lack of economic opportunities.

– Rehab centres lacking –

Six states in Nigeria don’t have a single drug treatment centre, while another nine only have one, according to a 2022 count.

The entire country of more than 200 million people has only 2,500 beds, Ibanga said — meaning some 10,000 people can be treated in a given year, out of the estimated three million Nigerians who need help.

On a quiet street on the outskirts of Abuja, the offices of Vanguard Against Drug Abuse lie behind an unmarked gate, indistinguishable from the houses around it, in an effort to provide privacy for those staying there.

Inside are chess boards, a ping pong table and meeting spaces for group therapy. Its 600,000 naira ($400) per month rate for in-patient therapy is described by founder Abraham Hope Omeiza as heavily discounted — but is still nearly nine times the minimum wage.

The 500 or so people Vanguard treats in both in-patient and out-patient therapy each year “is not enough”, Omeiza told AFP.

– Shifting local markets –

Moving drugs through West Africa also entrenches corruption in the region, researchers warn.

In Sierra Leone, investigative journalists have linked Dutch national Jos Leijdekkers, who is on Europol’s most-wanted list for cocaine trafficking, to the local political elite, including the president’s family.

The country, which only has a single psychiatric hospital, is currently battling an epidemic of people using kush — a synthetic cannabinoid used locally — as well as crack, derived from cocaine.

Ibrahim Kargbo, a senior director at the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, told AFP his agency is worried Sierra Leone “is rapidly becoming a trafficking corridor”.

In Ghana, a 2021 survey found cocaine was the most widely abused drug in the greater Accra region, followed by heroin and crack.

The region is also seeing an influx of tramadol, an opioid imported for the domestic market, but which has been aided in part by the success of heroin dealers.

In recent months, Ghanaian authorities have put out education campaigns against “red”, a high-strength variant of tramadol.

“If you are in that space where you cannot afford heroin, you rely on red,” said Maria-Goretti Ane Loglo, who has researched drug use in Ghana.

Nana Twum, a farmer in Ghana’s Western Region, told AFP earlier this year that “when I use them, I feel stronger at work.”

“But I have realised it is affecting me because I become weak when the drug wears off,” he said, adding that he was hoping to wean himself off.

A few weeks later, he was receiving treatment at the Nkwanta Regional Hospital.

“The process has not been easy, but I know it is the best choice,” he said.

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A fresh graduate of the Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke, simply identified as Taoreed, has been confirmed dead after he was struck by a stray bullet during a clash between rival cult groups in the community.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the incident occurred on Tuesday, September 23, shortly after he had collected his National Youth Service Corps call-up letter from the institution.

It was gathered that pandemonium first broke out around the school premises on Monday, September 22, when gunshots rang out while some final-year students were holding their signing-out celebrations.

A student of the school, who spoke with our correspondent on Thursday but preferred not to be mentioned, said a final-year student was killed in the process by suspected cultists.

He said, “We were signing out after our exams in the afternoon when we suddenly started hearing gunshots outside the school premises. Everyone ran for cover. It was later that we discovered that a final-year student had been killed by cultists. It was a terrible situation.”

In a video sighted by our correspondent on Thursday, students could be seen scampering for safety at the school gate.

The student recalled that a similar incident happened early last year, adding that gunshots were heard around the school premises during one of their sign-out celebrations.

A police source, however, disclosed that Taoreed’s death occurred the following day, during a reprisal along the Ilesa–Esa-Oke Road.

According to the source, Taoreed had visited the school on Tuesday to collect his NYSC call-up letter and was waiting at the roadside to board a bus home when gunmen suddenly opened fire.

“What happened was a reprisal after the final-year student was killed on Monday. The cultists had targeted their rivals in the area where Taoreed was trying to board a bus. They started shooting, and one of the stray bullets hit him. When he heard the gunshots, he ran for safety without realising he had been hit. He was later found in a nearby bush, where he crawled to but was unresponsive.”

It was further gathered that his call-up letter was found inside a black cross bag he was carrying at the time of the incident.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abiodun Abiodun Ojelabi, confirmed the incident.

He described the incident as a cult clash while noting that two people were killed.

“It was a cult clash. Two students were killed. One died on the spot, and the other died in the hospital. Efforts are ongoing to arrest the perpetrators,” he disclosed.

Over the years, rivalry between confraternities has left several students dead, especially in communities where tertiary institutions are situated. The killings are often linked to supremacy battles, reprisals, or attempts to recruit undergraduates into their groups.

PUNCH Metro reported in June that a yet-to-be-identified male adult was feared dead in a violent clash involving some people believed to be members of rival cult groups in Osun State Polytechnic, Iree.

Multiple reliable sources among students of the polytechnic, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said the clash involved members of Eiye and Aye confraternities.

They also said four other people were injured in the clash that occurred just outside the main gate of the institution.

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Operatives of the Kaduna Zonal directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested one Abdulazeez Gbadebo, the station manager of Emadeb Energy Service Limited for alleged criminal breach of trust and diversion of funds to the tune of N500 million.

According to a statement posted on its social media handle, the EFCC said Gbadebo’s arrest followed a petition alleging that it discovered through external audit that the suspect illegally diverted and sold bulk petrol to customers by manipulating the pump meters and diverting N500 million that accrued from the fraud to his personal bank account.

The EFCC said the investigations carried out by the Commission revealed that the suspect sold bulk petrol and diesel to different individuals and received payments through his private bank accounts.

Items recovered from him include an ash-coloured Mercedes Benz, an ash-coloured mini cooper, a green-coloured mini cooper, an ash-coloured mini cooper and a white Mercedes Benz GLK. Others were one original authorisation letter from Kaduna Geographical Information System (KADGIS), a certificate of occupancy with file number, KDL 328159, one three bedroom fully detached bungalow and three landed properties.

The EFCC added that the suspect will be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded.

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