Central Africa: When Streets Become Pharmacies - Booming Illicit Markets in Central Africa
The report says 251 tonnes of medicines were seized from 2020 to 2025 as shortages and high prices push patients to illicit sellers.
- On Tuesday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released a report warning that trafficking in counterfeit medicines poses a major public health threat across Central Africa, fueled by gaps in healthcare access.
- When legitimate medicines are unaffordable or inaccessible, illicit sellers fill the void; consumers in the Central African Republic buy single tablets for about 100 CFA francs rather than expensive boxes of 12 at authorized pharmacies.
- Between 2020 and 2025, authorities seized at least 251 tonnes of medical products across the region, with annual seizures rising from about five tonnes in 2020 to nearly 116 tonnes in 2024.
- This illicit trade constitutes a major threat to public health, leading to treatment failures, poisonings, and avoidable deaths, UNODC said. Substandard medicines also contribute to antimicrobial resistance, complicating future disease treatment.
- Sylvie Bertrand, UNODC's regional representative, argued that no single state can tackle this transnational challenge alone, calling for countries to harmonize laws and expand access to safe, affordable medicines.
16 Articles
16 Articles
The United Nations has warned of health risks from trafficking in illegal drugs in Central Africa.
Central Africa: When Streets Become Pharmacies - Booming Illicit Markets in Central Africa
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.
With more than 250 tonnes of medical products seized between 2020 and 2025 in the countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (Cemac), trafficking in medical products constitutes a major threat to public health, development and security in the region. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Cemac Commission, devotes its new report to this issue.
Central Africa faces rising threat from counterfeit and trafficked medicines
Countries in central Africa face a major public health threat from trafficking in medicines, fuelled by a gap between healthcare needs and access to safe, affordable medicine, the UN warned on Tuesday.
A new United Nations report states that, from 2020 to 2025, more than 251 tons of smuggled medical products were seized in Central Africa, including antibiotics, antimalarials and psychoactive substances, such as tramadol and pregabalin. The recently published document by Unodc (UN Office on Drugs and Crime), the World Health Organization and Cemac (Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa) considered trafficking in medical products a s…
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