This feature, which focuses on the illegal trade in illegal and counterfeit drugs, is part of a UN News series exploring the fight against trafficking in the Sahel.
From ineffective manual labor to fake anti-viral drugs, the illicit trade that grew during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has been comprehensively dismantled by the UN and partner countries in the Sahel region of Africa.
Substandard or counterfeit medicines, such as infant cough syrup, kill nearly half a million sub-Saharan Africans every year, according to a threat assessment report from the UN Office on the Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The report explains how the countries in the Sahel, which are about six thousand[6,000]kilometers from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, which is home to 300 million people, is joining forces to stop counterfeit drugs on their borders, and to arrest the perpetrators.
This conflict is taking place as Sahelians face an unprecedented conflict: more than 2.9 million people have been displaced by conflict and violence, with armed groups launching attacks that have destroyed homes -11,000 books already and 7,000 health centers.
Deadly supply meets desperate demand
Health care is rare in the region, which has among the world’s highest incidences of malaria and where infectious diseases are one of the main causes of death.
“This gap between supply and demand for medical care is at least partly filled by drugs supplied from the illegal market to treat illnesses or personal symptoms,” the report said, explaining that the markets Streets and unauthorized sellers, especially in rural or conflict-affected areas, are sometimes the only sources of medicines and pharmaceutical products.
Estimated malaria incidence rate per 1,000 population at risk, by country, 2020
Fake treatments with fatal results
The study shows that the cost of the illegal drug trade is high, in terms of health care and human life.
Fake or fake vaccines kill as many as 267,000 sub-Saharan Africans each year. About 170,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa die each year from unlicensed antibiotics used to treat severe pneumonia.
Caring for people who have used counterfeit or substandard medical products to treat malaria in sub-Saharan Africa costs $44.7 million annually, according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.
Counterfeit drugs in a market in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Motley traffic
Corruption is one of the main reasons the business is allowed to flourish.
Almost 40 percent of substandard and counterfeit medical products reported in Sahelian countries between 2013 and 2021 are in the regulatory supply chain, the report shows. Products diverted from the legal supply chain often come from such exporting countries as Belgium, China, France, and India. Some end up on pharmacy shelves.
The perpetrators are employees of drug companies, government officials, law enforcement officers, health care workers and outside vendors, all motivated by potential financial gain, the report found.
Traffickers are always looking for more innovative ways, from working with pharmacies to carrying out their online crimes, according to a UNODC research brief on the issue.
While terrorist groups and non-state armed groups are associated with the trafficking of medical products in the Sahel, this is mainly based on the distribution of drugs or levying “taxes” on shipments in the regions. under their control.
Snip supply, meet demand
Efforts are underway to adopt a regional approach to the problem, affecting all countries in the region. For example, all Sahel countries except Mauritania have ratified an agreement to establish an African drug agency, and the African Medicines Coordination Initiative, launched by the African Union in 2009, aims to improve access to safe, affordable medicine.
All Sahel countries have legal provisions in place related to trafficking in medical products, but some laws are outdated, UNODC findings show. The agency recommends, among other things, a revised law along with enhanced coordination between stakeholders.
Customs and law enforcement officials prevent large quantities of contraband from entering the markets of destination countries.
States are taking action
Law enforcement and judicial efforts that protect the legal supply chain should be important, UNODC said, pointing to the seizure of some 605 tons of counterfeit drugs between 2017 and 2021 by authorities in the region.
Operation Pangea, for example, coordinated by UN partner INTERPOL in 90 countries, targeted online sales of pharmaceutical products. The results found seizures of unauthorized viruses rose by 18 per cent and unauthorized chloroquine, to treat malaria, by 100 per cent.
“Organized crime groups in the country take advantage of gaps in national regulation and oversight to sell substandard and counterfeit medical products,” UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said. “We need to help countries increase cooperation across the gaps, build law enforcement and criminal justice capacity, and drive public awareness to keep people safe.”
After the death of 70 children in The Gambia in 2022, the World Health Organization identified four contaminated children’s medicines in the West African country.
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