Africa and transnational organized crime

Transnational organized criminal groups are considered a major threat to human security. Their activities impede social, economic, cultural and democratic developments globally, with disproportionate effects on developing and fragile states. Yet, while the threats and challenges posed by organized crime in Africa in general and West Africa in particular are enormous because of the high presence of fragile states which serve as potential breading grounds for such activities, there is limited concerted effort in tackling this menace. In Africa, organized criminal activities take the form of, among other things, drugs-trafficking, advance fee and Internet fraud, human trafficking, diamond smuggling, forgery, cigarette smuggling, illegal manufacture of firearms, trafficking in firearms, armed robbery, and the theft and smuggling of oil. ¹ Narcotics continue to have such an extensive and pervasive impact on African states to the extent that the whole continent is now perceived as ‘NarcoTrAfica’. ²