Launch of the West Africa Commission on Drugs

80 Pages·2013·8.72 MB·English

by  Matt Gould

Launch of the West Africa
Commission on Drugs
Coverage report
15 February 2013
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This report captures media coverage relating to the 31 January 2013 launch of the West Africa Commission on
Drugs (WACD) in Accra, Ghana by the Kofi Annan Foundation.
The launch generated significant and widespread coverage in regional and international media. In addition to
coverage of the launch, there were multiple placements of an Op-Ed piece by Kofi Annan in top-tier outlets in
English and French.
Below is a summary of the coverage from 31 January to 15 February:
 A very successful Associated Press piece on the launch, with 161 hits and counting, including in top
outlets such as the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, ABC News and Yahoo News
 Other top tier coverage includes hits in Voice of America, IRIN, Agence France Presse, Agence Presse
Africaine, and Ghana News Agency
 There has been Anglophone and Francophone coverage
 We have obtained coverage in international Francophone outlets such as: Jeune Afrique, Agence Ecofin
and Radio France Internationale
 The launch has received significant media coverage in African countries, including: Ghana, South Africa,
Angola, Nigeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Burking Faso, Guinea, Benin, Mali and Algeria
 The launch has also received international coverage in the following countries: the US, UK, Malaysia,
China, Argentina, India and Lebanon
 In addition to online and print media coverage, there was also broadcast coverage of the launch
including President Obasanjo’s interview with BBC Newsday, Kofi Annan’s interviews with RFI and BBC
Focus on Africa, and the Jeune Afrique interview with Pedro Pires.
 The Op-Ed, originally published in The Guardian, has already appeared in the following outlets:
o Fraternité Matin, Ivory Coast
o Le Quotidien d’Oran, Algeria
o Le Matin, Morocco
o Business Day, Nigeria
o Business Day, South Africa
o Le Soleil, Senegal
o L’Essor, Mali
o Le Pays, Burkina Faso
o Ghanaian Chronicle, Ghana
o The Namibian, Namibia
o Le Republicain, Togo
 A number of other national newspapers have expressed interest in publishing the Op-Ed. This coverage
report will be updated as and when further coverage appears.
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Wires

Associated Press
Kofi Annan tackles drug trafficking in West Africa
Laura Burke
31 January 2013
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_GHANA_DRUG_TRAFFICKING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME
&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan launched a commission Thursday to tackle drug
trafficking in West Africa as the region increasingly becomes a stopover point for cocaine and marijuana
shipments from the Americas to Europe.
The 10-member commission, headed by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, will raise awareness,
promote regional capacity to deal with the problem, and develop policy recommendations for political leaders,
he said. The Commission on the Impact of Drug Trafficking on Governance, Security and Development in West
Africa is sponsored by the Koffi Annan Foundation
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report last year that cocaine trafficking in West and Central Africa
generates some $900 million annually for criminal networks.
In July, the Executive Director of the UNODC, Yury Fedotov, said some 30 tons of cocaine were trafficked to
West Africa in 2011. He also reported an increase in heroin trafficking, as evidenced by an upsurge in seizures
from 20 kilograms seized in 2008 to almost 400 kilograms in 2011. Methamphetamine laboratories have also
recently been discovered in West Africa, he said.
The tiny coup-prone nation of Guinea-Bissau served as the entry point for drug smuggling in West Africa about
a decade ago, Annan said, and is now frequently dubbed a "narcostate."
In Guinea-Bissau key members of the military have been named as complicit in the trade, including several
army and navy chiefs who are now on the United States' "drug kingpin" list. The infusion of illicit cash has
emboldened an already bloated army, and fueled several coups.
But the trade has in recent years moved along the continent's western coast and through its porous borders in
the Sahel, Annan said.
Annan blamed the international community for ignoring the threat posed by corrupted states like Guinea-
Bissau.
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"As an international community we tend to be rather short-sighted. We have to be careful how we deal with
failed states," Annan said. "We ignored Somalia for 20 years until it came back to bite us in the form of central
piracy, and everybody then woke up. And by then it had done lots of damage to the whole region and to global
commerce. In a way we are doing the same with Guinea-Bissau. That's where it started, and we have allowed
it to fester," he said.
Annan said drug traffickers have linked with terrorist groups in the region, who are threatening regional stability
as they threaten to take the reins of power in Mali and other parts of the Sahel.
And another concern for regional leaders: West Africans are also starting to use the drugs. "We have ceased to
be just transit zone. We have become manufacturing zone and consuming zone," Obasanjo said. "We don't
want it to reach an epidemic trend. We want to stop it and reverse it."
Yet Annan acknowledged his commission is "not a police force," and cannot hold smugglers, criminal gangs,
terrorists, or corrupt officials accountable.
"All governments and people in this region have to be aware and do whatever they can to contain it," he said.
"But we also rely on our partners in Europe, in Latin America and the U.S. to work with us in dealing with this
menace."
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The Associated Press article received widespread coverage particularly in the US among top-tier outlets, the
highlights of which are summarised below. In total, the article has been published in 161 outlets worldwide.
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Agence France Presse
W. African drug smuggling aids extremists: Annan
31 January 2013
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130131/wafrican-drug-smuggling-aids-extremists-annan
The AFP piece was picked up by the Global Post in the US and the New Age in South Africa.
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Ex-UN chief Kofi Annan said Thursday that drug smuggling in west Africa had aided extremists in a region
where Islamists had taken control of northern Mali and risked destabilising other nations.

Annan made the comments as he launched a commission to study the problem in the Ghanaian capital Accra.

Convened by Annan and chaired by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, the West African
Commission on Drugs will release a report by the end of the year with recommendations for how narcotics
trafficking from South American through West Africa can be checked.

"In West Africa there is evidence that drug traffickers have linked up with extremist groups," he said. "All of
these developments threaten the stability of our region as we have witnessed so graphically in Mali in recent
weeks."

According to Annan, "the linkages between smugglers, criminal gangs and extremists along the coast and all
the way through the Sahara is now evident for all to see.

"It's also been clear over the past couple of years there has been hostage-taking in the Sahel, cigarette
smuggling and drugs are also involved. So I think what is happening in Mali cannot be seen in isolation. There
is a threat to the whole region."

Chronic instability in Guinea-Bissau has made the country an attractive destination for South American
druglords seeking a hub to move cocaine into Europe. Annan said the international community tends to ignore
such problems until they spill over into other countries.

"We ignored Somalia for 20 years until it came back to bite us in the form in central piracy," Annan said. "In a
way, we are doing the same with Guinea-Bissau ... we've allowed it to fester."

West Africa has long been known to be a trans-shipment point for cocaine and other drugs coming from South
America.

Recently however concerns have been raised about whether extremist groups wreaking havoc in the region --
most notably Islamist groups in northern Mali -- may run drugs to pay for their activities. Obasanjo said drug
cartels are now also selling to and producing drugs in west Africa.

"We have ceased to be just a transit zone. We have become a manufacturing zone and a consuming zone,"
Obasanjo said.
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Agence Presse Africaine
Annan alarmed by W/Africa drugs trafficking
31 January 2013
http://www.apanews.net/news/en/wire.php

The APA piece was also picked up by Star Africa.com

The former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has decried massive upsurge of illegal drug
trafficking in the West African Sub-region which he observed threatens the stability and development of the
region.
Speaking at an inaugural ceremony of the West Africa Commission on the Impact of Drug Trafficking on
Governance, Security and Development on Thursday at Kofi Annan Peace Keeping Training Centre in Accra,
the former UN boss said for the past ten years drug trafficking had increased in the sub-region, saying if
unchecked it could erode the social, economic development gains the region had made.
The ex UN boss therefore called for collaboration from state and private institutions to combat the menace.
Ghanaian Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur who officially inaugurated the Commission contended that
Ghana was not the only country confronted with drug trafficking menace therefore it would collaborate with the
United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS to combat drug trafficking so as to protect the youths from ruining
their future.
A former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo who chaired the function pointed out that illegal drug trade
has the potential of causing political instability and social upheavals and called for
concerted effort in battling it.
The Commission was established by Kofi Annan Foundation in consultation with international and regional
partners, national governments and civil society organisations in response to sudden upsurge in drug trafficking
in West Africa for the past ten years.
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Ghana News Agency
Vice President Stresses Collaboration In Fight Against Drug Trafficking In W/A
31 January 2013
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/social/vice-president-stresses-collaboration-in-fight-against-drug-
trafficking-55748
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The Ghanaian Vice President, Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur today said there was the need for countries to
work closely with drug producer and consumer regions for the world to deal effectively with drug trafficking. He
said Ghana was not alone in facing problems of drug trafficking, and therefore would continue to collaborate
with the ECOWAS, the African Union and the United Nations to enhance its ability to respond to threats of the
drug trade.
The Vice President stressed the need to receive accurate information about drugs, adding, ”we must make
every effort to ensure that our youth are given the kind of help that reduces their vulnerability to drug
pushers and diminish the risks they run in using drugs.”
Vice President Amissah-Arthur said this when he addressed the inaugural ceremony of the West Africa
Commission on the Impact of Drug Trafficking on Governance, Security and Development, held at the Kofi
Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre, at Teshie, in Accra.
The Commission was established by the Kofi Annan Foundation, in consultation with international and regional
partners, national governments and civil society organisations, in response to the dramatic surge in drug
trafficking through West Africa over the past decade.
The Commission is chaired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, and the members are a group
of distinguished West Africans, including President Pedro Verona Pires o f Cape Verde.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur said the Government of Ghana welcomes the initiative, which was taken by
former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to raise awareness of the negative impact of drug trafficking in the
sub-region.
He said the initiative came at a crucial time when the countries in the sub-region were facing the threat of
sustained instability due to the destructive activities and corrupting influence of drug traffickers.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur said West Africa had become a significant point for the trafficking of drugs from
South America to Europe and some estimates suggest more than a third of the drugs that go to Western
Europe have West Africa as point of entry.
The Vice President said:“The value of the drug trade is a significant proportion to our national GDP. It therefore
has the ability to undermine national institutions. The profits from the drug trade can fund and corrupt national
institutions and subordinate them to the will of the traffickers.
“Drug trafficking is thus a great threat to the well-being, security and stability of our countries.”
Vice President Amissah-Arthur noted that the percentage of substance abusing patients using cocaine, heroin
and pethidine appears to have grown substantially over the last five years, and the ingestion of drugs by
injections had grown, heightening the risk of HIV transmission.
Also the UN Office of Drugs and Crime suggests that in 2009 locals consumed about a third of the South
American cocaine shipped through West Africa, and this situation, the Vice President said, was a concern since
the consumption of illicit drugs in the West African sub-region created serious problems of dependency, with
further burden on health services.
While acknowledging the several fronts Ghana had taken to deal with the threats posed by drug trafficking, the
Vice President called for more to be done, and gave the Commission the assurance that the Mahama
Administration would lend full support to its work.
Mr Kofi Annan said the massive surge in drug trafficking over the last decade presents a serious and growing
threat to the region’s stability and development.
“Left unchecked, illegal drug trafficking could compromise the encouraging progress that West African Nations
have made in strengthening democracy and promoting human and economic development,” he added.
Former President Obasanjo said the illegal trade in drugs could cause political instability and social upheavals.