Will ignoring West Africa’s drug hub curse world with another Somalia?

UNITED NATIONS — It should come as no surprise that a country haunted by the aftermath of civil war, challenged by military coups, mired in corruption, and facing the undertow of poverty would be a prime candidate for drug smuggling.
Add a geographic location on the nexus of transportation routes, but off the media’s political radar, and you have a near-perfect combination for what has become a narcotics trans-shipment point.
The country is Guinea-Bissau, a sliver of land and some forgotten islands on the shoulder of West Africa but astride key transportation routes between South America and Europe.

A former Portuguese colony which gained independence in 1974 under a left wing political movement, Guinea-Bissau has faced a tumultuous history of one party rule, mismanagement, and corruption.

Civil war in the 1990’s and an endemic climate of military takeovers, the most recent being in April 2012, saw the small land of 1.6 million people morph into what many security experts say is a cocaine trans-shipment hub.
The UN Security Council has expressed alarm that drug trafficking has expanded since the recent coup. There are widespread allegations that key members of the Guinea-Bissau military serve as both protectors to and often as “kingpins” of narcotics trafficking.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon advised in a report that organized crime has used Guinea-Bissau “as a transit point for international drug trafficking.” He added “International intelligence suggests that cocaine trafficking is taking place on a weekly or bi-weekly basis…without interference from government officials.” Ban added, “It is believed that hundreds of kilograms of cocaine are trafficked in each single attempt.”
The Bissagos islands, a string of largely uninhabited and off the radar islets moreover, offer opportunities for clandestine landings. Nearby Boloma, was used by Pan Am flying boats during WWII for transatlantic crossings.
While the UN Security Council has tried to facilitate political reconciliation among rival factions, Taye-Brook Zerihoun, an Assistant Secretary General told the Council that “There is a general atmosphere of fear within the population arising from the recent cases of beatings, torture and intimidation that continue to restrict freedom or assembly and information.”
He warned, “The continued lack of civilian control and oversight over the defense and security forces and the continuing attempts by some politicians to manipulate the military for sectarian benefit remain matters of grave concern.”
An understatement; key elements of the military are part and parcel of the problem.
Brazil’s Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti was more specific, “The continued lack of civilian control over the military, drug trafficking, impunity, economic deterioration, and human rights violations are daunting challenges Guinea-Bissau currently faces.” Speaking as the Chairperson of the UN’s Guinea Bissau Peacebuilding Commission , she called for dialogue among the political parties but stressed that reconciliation must “take root domestically” and not be imposed from outside.
Importantly one small but significant step may come from the UN’s new point man in the country Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace laureate and former President of East Timor, another former Portuguese colony. A respected player in conflict mediation, Ramos- Horta may be able to establish at least a serious start to solving this pernicious problem.
Why is this important?
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan blamed the international community for ignoring the threat posed by corrupted countries like Guinea-Bissau.
In comments to the Associated Press Kofi Annan stated significantly, “As an international community we tend to be rather short-sighted. We have to be careful how we deal with failed states…We ignored Somalia for 20 years until it came back to bite us in the form of central piracy, and everybody then woke up.”
He added, “In a way we are doing the same with Guinea-Bissau. That’s where it started, and we have allowed it to fester.” Annan advised that 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.
We saw what happened in Somalia. We see what’s transpiring in Mali. Will we be blindsided in Guinea-Bissau?