Media Home
UN Web TV
UN PhotoUnifeed
UN / WEST AFRICA DRUG TRAFFICKING WRAP
STORY: UN / WEST AFRICA DRUG TRAFFICKING WRAP
TRT: 2.18
SOURCE: UNTV / UNMIL / UNODC
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
18 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:
“Drug trafficking presents an enormous challenge to peace, stability, economic and social development in West Africa and the Sahel. We must promote a coherent, integrated and pragmatic international response, rooted in sustainable development and the full respect for human rights. I encourage Member States to actively engage in a broad and open discussion leading up to the September 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on the world drug problem.”
4. Med shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:
“Our latest estimates have found $1.25 billion of cocaine transiting through West Africa each year. A rising portion of drugs entering West African coasts use the Sahel route on the way to the Mediterranean.”
6. Med shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:
“West Africa is no longer just a transit route for drug traffickers but a growing destination, with more than a million users of illicit drugs. Rising consumption aggravates an already challenging public health environment and threatens socio-economic development.”
8. Med shot, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Yuri Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“Heroin passes through the region going into lucrative markets. We also know that a portion of the methamphetamine seized in East Asia came from West Africa. We should also note that the prevalence in the region of fraudulent medication represents a serious threat for health and public security and remains a source of concern.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
FILE – UNODC – 2005, KENYA
11. Various shots, intercepted drugs being burned
FILE – UNMIL – 8 OCTOBER 2008, LIBERIA
12. Med shot, policemen opening bag of marijuana
FILE – UNODC - UNDATED, AFGHANISTAN
13. Wide shot, poppy destruction
14. Various shots, farmers scrapping poppy capsules
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today (18 December) told the Security Council that drug trafficking presents “an enormous challenge to peace, stability, economic and social development in West Africa and the Sahel.”
The Secretary-General, briefing the Council during a meeting on drug trafficking in West Africa and the Sahel, said the international community “must promote a coherent, integrated and pragmatic international response, rooted in sustainable development and the full respect for human rights.”
He encouraged Member States to “actively engage in a broad and open discussion” leading up to a General Assembly Special Session on the world drug problem to be held in September 2016.
Ban told the Council that the UN latest estimates indicate that $1.25 billion of cocaine from South America is transiting each year through West African coasts use the Sahel route on the way to the Mediterranean.
The Secretary-General also noted that “West Africa is no longer just a transit route for drug traffickers but a growing destination, with more than a million users of illicit drugs.”
He said that rising consumption “aggravates an already challenging public health environment and threatens socio-economic development.”
Also addressing the Council, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yuri Fedotov, said that in addition to cocaine, “Heroin passes through the region going into lucrative markets.”
Fedotov also said that “a portion of the methamphetamine seized in East Asia came from West Africa” and expressed concern over the prevalence in the region of fraudulent medication, which “represents a serious threat for health and public security.”
In a number of measures outlined in a Presidential Statement, the Security Council called on countries in West Africa and the Sahel region to strengthen border management to effectively constrain the spread of transnational threats, such as drug trafficking.
The meeting was convened by the delegation of France, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council for this month.
Download
There is no media available to download.
