A 2023 Global Organized Crime Index report has revealed that there is increased trading, availability, and domestic consumption of cocaine in Africa.
According to the survey conducted by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime titled“Global Organised Crime Index- A Fractured World,” which was released on Wednesday, the continent has recorded increased cultivation, trafficking, and consumption of cocaine.
At the criminal markets, continentally, the cocaine trade saw the highest increase by 0.42 points to 4.52 in 2022 from 4.10 points out of 10 points in 2021.
"Cocaine trafficking has never been particularly pervasive in Africa, generally averaging lower than is the case for other criminal markets," the report stated.
"Nevertheless, the scores would suggest that African states have been affected by changes observed in transnational cocaine trafficking patterns in recent years."
According to the report, there has been a transition in destination markets, where organized crime groups are increasingly targeting consumer markets other than the United States.
This shift has translated into increased use of African ports and countries by traffickers as indirect transit hubs for other markets.
These African hubs and trans-shipment points are favored because of lax customs controls, poor law enforcement capacity, and political instability.
"The continent’s rise in popularity as a transit route has also resulted in increased availability of cocaine and consequent rising domestic consumption," the report indicated.
The methodology used by the Global Organized Crime Index model was an alternative, commodity-driven assessment framework to measure illicit markets through a combination of scope and scale, value, and impact of 15 criminal markets.
Also, it used the structure and influence of five criminal actor types, and the existence and capacity of countries to be resilient to organized crime, measured across 12 resilience building blocks.
Africa has continued to experience high levels of criminality in the two-year period since 2021, recording the second-highest criminality score continent in the world at 5.25 out of 10, coming in after Asia.
According to the report, West Africa drives the continental average, scoring the highest for this criminal market.
North Africa was observed to bear the biggest impacts of the cocaine trade, followed by Southern Africa.
Between 2021 and 2022, North Africa and Southern Africa recorded an increase in cocaine trade by 0.59 points and 0.58 points respectively.
"Nevertheless, West Africa, perhaps unsurprisingly, also saw a notable increase, recording a +0.47 rise in 2023 from 2021," the report indicated.
Globally, the criminal markets in the 2021 Index grew in pervasiveness, with cocaine trade increasing by 0.30 points to 4.82 points in 2022 from 4.52 points out of 10 points in 2021.
