Guinea-Bissau fast becoming a narcotics and terrorism haven


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The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) has stressed the need for urgent support to Guinea-Bissau from the international community to save the country from becoming a haven for terrorism.

The report entitled: ”Guinea-Bissau: In Need of a State” was released in Brussels by the independent non-governmental organisation in New York at the week end.

It said that ”Guinea-Bissau risks becoming a potentially violent narco-state without international support for urgently needed democratic reforms”.

It called on the international community to push leaders in Guinea-Bissau to enact reforms and end the country’s political crises.

The ICG also said that ”without a democratic state in Guinea-Bissau, the increasing cocaine traffic from Latin America, among other illicit activities, threatens to bring terrorists operations to the country”.

The report therefore calls for fundamental changes in the way the country is run , including a much-needed reform of the army and a political system free from military interference.

”Only a serious institution-building process and a legal framework that can regulate political life and free it from the guerrilla mentality of pre-independence can allow Guinea-Bissau to escape its crisis once and for all,” Francois Grignon, Crisis Group Africa programme director, said in a statement.

”The country must start building a real democratic state,” he added.

On June 25, the UN Security Council urged Guinea-Bissau’s government to strengthen its international and regional cooperation to fight the narcotics trade and organised crime plaguing the country.

The council members had voiced concern over what they described as ”the acute threat posed by drug trafficking and organised crime to the peace consolidation process” in Guinea-Bissau. Panapress .

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