【联合国新闻非洲·中非】When streets become pharmacies: Booming illicit markets in Centra…

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When streets become pharmacies: Booming illicit markets in Central Africa



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When streets become pharmacies: Booming illicit markets in Central Africa Photo: WHO/Jim Holmes The illicit pharmaceuticals trade extends far beyond falsified drugs, including genuine medicines diverted from legitimate supply chains, unapproved products and drugs smuggled across borders. Facebook Twitter Print Email

Antibiotics, malaria treatments, painkillers, opioids. More than 250 tonnes of medical products were seized over six years in Central Africa. Behind those numbers is an illicit market that thrives not simply despite the region’s fragile health systems, but in part because of them.

When medicines are scarce, unaffordable or simply too far away, illicit sellers have proved adept at filling the void.

That is the dynamic described in a new report released Tuesday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The illicit trade extends far beyond falsified drugs. It includes genuine medicines diverted from legitimate supply chains, unapproved products and drugs smuggled across borders.

From 2020 through 2025, authorities seized 251 tonnes of medical products in Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic and Chad. Annual seizures rose from about five tonnes in 2020 to nearly 116 tonnes in 2024, before exceeding 97 tonnes in 2025.

The United Nations cautioned against interpreting the increase as a straightforward measure of the trade’s growth. Larger seizures can reflect both greater trafficking and more aggressive enforcement, and the available data vary considerably among countries and from year to year.

Still, the scale is striking. Cameroon accounted for nearly all of the seizures recorded in 2025, with 96 tonnes intercepted, compared with just 2.5 tonnes five years earlier. The products intercepted across the region range from antibiotics, antimalarial and anti-inflammatory drugs to painkillers and such psychoactive substances as tramadol and pregabalin.

“The report outlines a multimodal trafficking system that uses maritime, riverine, air and road routes and involves a broad range of actors,” said Sylvie Bertrand, UNODC’s regional representative for West and Central Africa.

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来源：UN News Africa (https://news.un.org/en/news/region/africa)
原文链接：https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2026/10/1168527
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