Africa is grappling with a rapidly expanding drug crisis that is deepening insecurity and threatening public health, economic development, and regional stability. According to the World Drug Report 2024, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), transnational drug trafficking networks are increasingly targeting the continent, leading to a surge in local drug use and a complex array of societal harms.
Once seen primarily as a transit corridor for narcotics destined for Europe and Asia, Africa is now witnessing a dangerous spill-over, with illicit drugs penetrating local markets and driving up rates of addiction, crime, and violence. West Africa, in particular, has emerged as a key trafficking route for cocaine shipped from Latin America to Europe, with major seizures occurring along coastal states and deepening links between drug trafficking and violent non-state actors (UNODC, 2024).
Cocaine’s Rise and the Spill-over Effect
Cocaine production reached a record high of 2,757 tons in 2022, nearly three times higher than a decade earlier. While Europe and the Americas remain major markets, West Africa has become a critical trans-shipment hub, with criminal syndicates leveraging weak governance and porous borders. This has not only increased drug availability in local communities but also drawn young people into trafficking and consumption. The number of individuals entering drug treatment for cocaine use is rising, a marked shift from earlier patterns when cocaine was primarily a transit drug (UNODC, 2024).
The presence of cocaine has coincided with the expansion of organised criminal networks, some of which overlap with terrorist groups and militias operating in the Sahel. Analysts warn that drug trafficking is becoming a lucrative source of financing for extremist groups, helping sustain insurgencies and fuelling intercommunal violence in countries like Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. The links between drugs and conflict have already drawn comparisons to Latin America’s “narco wars.”
Cannabis and Tramadol: Africa’s Local Epidemics
Cannabis remains the most widely used drug on the continent, with 228 million users globally and West and Central Africa reporting nearly 10% usage prevalence, driven heavily by consumption in Nigeria (UNODC, 2024). Cannabis is also the main drug for which people in Africa seek treatment, indicating its outsized social impact.
Equally alarming is the non-medical use of tramadol, a synthetic opioid not under international control but widely abused, especially in West, Central, and North Africa. The region accounted for over 90% of global tramadol seizures in the past five years, with most of the supply illicitly manufactured and trafficked from South Asia (UNODC, 2024).
Tramadol is increasingly linked to youth addiction and criminal behaviour, with some armed groups allegedly using it to control child soldiers or to sustain combatants in conflict zones. Its abuse is also associated with a rising number of psychiatric and neurological emergencies, adding further strain to fragile public health systems.
Synthetic Drug Concoctions Threaten Public Health
New threats are emerging in the form of drug mixtures known as “kush,” “nyaope,” and “karkoubi”, which are spreading rapidly among urban youth. Often made from unknown combinations of cannabis, pharmaceuticals like benzodiazepines, alcohol, and solvents, these concoctions are highly addictive and harmful. With no standardised composition, their effects are unpredictable and sometimes fatal (UNODC, 2024).
The rise of synthetic drugs has also narrowed the gender gap in drug use, with women increasingly represented among users and traffickers, particularly in the case of synthetics. However, treatment access remains disproportionately low for women, with stigma, lack of tailored services, and economic barriers preventing many from seeking help (UNODC, 2024).
Public Health and Treatment Gaps
Africa now has the widest treatment gap globally, with only 2.8% of people with drug use disorders receiving care in 2022, compared to a global average of about 9%. In addition, injection drug use is growing, with over 1.37 million people injecting drugs in Africa and high rates of HIV and hepatitis C transmission through unsafe practices. Southern Africa reports that 22.3% of people who inject drugs are HIV-positive (UNODC, 2024).
This lack of access to treatment and harm-reduction services exacerbates health crises and undermines social cohesion, particularly in urban slums and marginalised communities, where drug use is both a symptom and a driver of poverty, unemployment, and social alienation.
Drug Trade Undermining State Institutions
The drug trade’s infiltration of African ports, border posts, and government institutions has compromised governance and weakened state legitimacy. In some areas, drug profits are believed to be used to bribe officials, finance militias, and disrupt elections, threatening fragile democratic processes. The low prosecution rates for drug trafficking compared to high rates for drug use point to systemic weaknesses in Africa’s judicial systems, often targeting users while traffickers evade justice (UNODC, 2024).
Furthermore, the security implications are growing. From Guinea-Bissau, often dubbed Africa’s first “narco-state,” to coastal hubs in Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal, the illicit drug economy is becoming entrenched in politics, business, and local power dynamics.
Drugs and Security Concerns
The proliferation of drug trafficking across Africa, particularly in the West African Sahel, has evolved into a multidimensional security crisis with wide-ranging implications. In recent years, this region has become a major transit corridor for illicit drugs, most notably cocaine. For instance, in 2022 alone, seizures in countries like Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Niger surged dramatically from an average of 13 kg annually (2013–2020) to a staggering 1,466 kg, signalling the intensification of trafficking activities in areas already burdened by instability (UNGeneva.org, AP News, Al Jazeera).
These revenues have increasingly served as a critical lifeline for extremist groups such as Islamic State affiliates and Al-Qaeda, as well as various rebel factions, allowing them to sustain and expand their operations. The porous nature of borders in conflict-affected areas further enables drug militias to entrench themselves, exacerbating violence and regional instability (The Times, AP News, UNGeneva.org).
This complex web of narcotics trafficking is also deeply interwoven with corruption and the erosion of governance structures. Political elites, security personnel, and local authorities have been implicated in collusion with traffickers, enabling a form of state capture that undermines institutions and disrupts judicial processes (AfricanSecurityAnalysis.org).
Public trust is further diminished by high-profile but unresolved seizures, such as Ghana’s large-scale cocaine busts, which rarely result in accountability or systemic reform (UNGeneva.org, AfricanSecurityAnalysis.org, GlobalInitiative.net).
Furthermore, traffickers launder illicit proceeds through legitimate sectors such as real estate, mining, and finance, gaining both economic leverage and a facade of legitimacy that entrenches criminal influence within the formal economy (UNGeneva.org).
The rise in drug trafficking has also led to increased violence and organised crime. Urban centres across West Africa are experiencing spikes in homicides, robberies, and gang-related conflicts as drug gangs compete for territory and dominance (AfricanSecurityAnalysis.org, CrimelessAfrica.com, AfricaCenter.org). Additionally, the Gulf of Guinea—a hotspot for maritime crime—faces piracy and armed robbery that cost regional states an estimated US$1.9 billion annually, much of it driven by the financial backing of drug-fuelled criminal networks (UN Press).
The societal costs of these developments are profound. West Africa is witnessing a surge in local drug consumption, with cannabis use in 2022 reaching nearly 10%, more than double the global average (Ghana.UN.org). Marginalised populations, such as sex workers in Niger, face heightened risks of addiction, exploitation, and debt cycles (The Guardian). In East Africa, injecting drug use has created acute health crises; in coastal Kenya, for example, HIV prevalence among heroin users has reached an alarming 88% (Wikipedia).
The entanglement between drug trafficking and terrorism is particularly troubling. Extremist groups such as Al-Shabaab in East Africa and jihadist factions in the Sahel are known to benefit—directly or indirectly—from drug revenues, further entrenching the nexus between transnational organised crime and terrorism (Al Jazeera). Drug routes frequently intersect with arms trafficking and other forms of insurgent logistics, creating robust cross-border networks that are hard to dismantle (UNOWAS, Wikipedia, AfricaCenter.org).
Beyond immediate security threats, the developmental toll is equally devastating. With approximately 70% of West Africa’s population under the age of 35, youth unemployment and economic disenfranchisement create fertile ground for recruitment into trafficking networks or drug use (UN Press, Open Society Foundations, The Guardian). The influx of illicit funds also distorts legitimate markets, crowds out legal businesses, deters foreign investment, and exacerbates poverty.
Conclusion
Drug trafficking in Africa—particularly in the West African Sahel—is no longer merely a criminal issue; it is a transnational security threat with profound implications for governance, development, public health, and regional stability. The convergence of narcotics trade with terrorism, corruption, and organised crime forms a self-reinforcing cycle of violence and institutional decay. Addressing this multifaceted crisis requires coordinated regional strategies, robust law enforcement, strengthened governance, and targeted socio-economic interventions to disrupt both the supply chains and the enabling environments that sustain them.
With its young population and strategic geography, Africa risks becoming both a victim and a vector of the global drug crisis. The UNODC calls for a multi-pronged response that includes enhancing border controls, expanding treatment services, tackling corruption, and addressing the root causes of drug use, such as unemployment and conflict.
Without urgent action, the continent’s growing drug problem will continue to fuel violence, empower criminal networks, and undermine fragile peace efforts, particularly in regions already grappling with terrorism and political instability.
While Ghana waits to work in concert with other countries, it is a critical imperative that it makes its own efforts to solve the problem. Illicit drug dens, stationed in populated areas within urban centres are well known. Intelligence mapping and registers can be developed to guide knowledge of the scale. Targeted raids, based on multi-agency cooperation can be undertaken. Given the high numbers of youth involvement, Ghana can and should sensitise young persons in secondary schools and the universities. Additionally, the government should liaise with key non-governmental security sector institutions to develop programmes and initiatives that provide training and employment for young people.
As the World Drug Report makes clear, the stakes are high, and the time to act is now. Unless the government and security agencies claim not to have felt or seen the impacts, the nation’s very own future is very dire.
References
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). (2024). World Drug Report 2024. United Nations. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2024.html
- World Health Organization (WHO). (2022). Global progress report on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, 2021 accountability and monitoring in the context of the universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. Geneva: WHO. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240027077
- UN Geneva. (2023). UN experts warn of growing nexus between drug trafficking, terrorism and governance collapse in West Africa. United Nations Office at Geneva. Retrieved from https://www.ungeneva.org
- African Security Analysis. (2023). Narco-Trafficking and Governance Erosion in the Sahel: A Strategic Overview. AfricanSecurityAnalysis.org. Retrieved from https://africansecurityanalysis.org
- AP News. (2023, June). Record cocaine seizures in West Africa spark fears of deeper corruption and armed group ties. Associated Press. Retrieved from https://apnews.com
- Al Jazeera. (2023). Africa’s cocaine boom: The new Sahel crisis. Al Jazeera Investigative Reports. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com
- BBC Monitoring. (2023). West Africa’s cocaine routes and their security implications. BBC Monitoring Africa Intelligence Brief. Retrieved from https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk
- Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. (2023). The Political Economy of Cocaine in West Africa. GlobalInitiative.net. Retrieved from https://globalinitiative.net
- The Times. (2023). Cocaine and Kalashnikovs: How West Africa became a narco frontier. The Times UK. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk
- Ghana.UN.org. (2023). UN Ghana: Drug Use and Regional Security Risks. UN Ghana Country Reports. Retrieved from https://ghana.un.org
- CrimelessAfrica.com. (2023). Urban crime surge linked to synthetic drug use in West Africa. Retrieved from https://crimelessafrica.com
- Africa Center for Strategic Studies. (2024). Drug Economies and Terrorism in the Sahel: Strategic Insights. Retrieved from https://africacenter.org
- The Guardian. (2023). Niger’s sex workers trapped in addiction and poverty. The Guardian Africa Edition. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com
- Wikipedia. (2024). Drug use in Kenya and HIV prevalence. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_use_in_Kenya
- UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS). (2023). Transnational Crime and Border Insecurity in the Sahel. Retrieved from https://unowas.unmissions.org
- Open Society Foundations. (2023). Youth Vulnerability and Drug Networks in West Africa. Retrieved from https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org
UN Press. (2023). Piracy, Drug Crime, and Maritime Insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea. United Nations Press Briefing. Retrieved from https://press.un.org
