Guinea-Bissau, at UN, calls on consumer States to help in fight against drugs

Guinea-Bissau’s Prime Minister took to the podium at the General Assembly today to call on the United States and the members of the European Union to help the impoverished West African country control its maritime borders against drug traffickers.

Speaking on the fourth day of the Assembly’s annual general debate, Carlos Gomes Júnior said the “increasingly powerful and more sophisticated” operations of drug traffickers and organized crime gangs in his region left policing borders beyond the capabilities of a country with the resources of Guinea-Bissau.

“We formally ask the support of the US, the European Union and its member States, as we cannot single-handedly fight drug trafficking,” Mr. Gomes said.

In recent years Guinea-Bissau has been increasingly identified as a hub and transit point for the trade in illegal drugs, and Mr. Gomes said his Government had taken a series of measures, including strengthening the country’s criminal justice system, to combat the problem.

He added that his Government has also reached a series of bilateral agreements with other countries on the issue.

However, “without a strategic cooperation between countries of origin, countries of transit, and countries of consumption of drugs, there will not be an effective fight against drug trafficking.”

The UN has a peacebuilding office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) and earlier this year its head, Joseph Mutaboba, told the Security Council that drug trafficking remained one of the key factors promoting instability in the country, which has been plagued by coups and misrule for much of its life since it declared independence in 1973.