West African leaders not taking drug problem seriously enough: Annan

By David Lewis DAKAR (Reuters) – Governments in West Africa are not taking the challenge posed by drug trafficking seriously enough and inaction has allowed high-level criminals to escape, forcing foreign involvement, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan told Reuters. Over the past decade, West Africa’s string of poor, weak nations have become a major transit zone for Latin American cocaine headed to Europe. “I don’t think the governments are taking the issue seriously, nor are they taking the necessary action required,” Annan told Reuters on the sidelines of the launch on Thursday of a report by his West Africa Commission on Drugs. The report urges West Africa to overhaul existing responses and to learn from mistakes made during the decades-old “war on drugs” elsewhere, especially in Latin America, where experts say gang-related violence has increased without significantly denting trafficking or use.