The West African Drug Crisis is Worse than You Think
West Africa is facing a growing drug crisis, with cocaine, tramadol, and cannabis flooding the region.
Simon Whistler • June 9, 2026
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Note: this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors or inconsistencies.
If we mention West Africa, odds are you'll be expecting a video on either coups or terrorist attacks. And yeah, that's with good reason. Since 2020, the region has had at least seven coups across five countries.
Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea-Bissau. And those are just the successful ones. Both Benin and Nigeria successfully thwarted coup attempts just last year.
In that same period, there have been so many terror attacks that the Sahel now accounts for nearly half of all terrorism-related deaths globally. Now, all of this happening simultaneously would be a lot for any region to handle. And the strain is showing, especially in places like Mali.
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