Sierra Leone, with almost nine million inhabitants and located between Guinea and Liberia, is a nation still marked by a civil conflict that lasted from 1991 to 2002 and left deep consequences due to its extreme violence. Today, a large percentage of the population lives in conditions of extreme poverty, while a considerable part of the youth faces unemployment and lack of prospects. It is in this context where the kush has found a favorable environment for its expansion.
The emerging drug that is affecting the youth in Sierra Leone goes by the name kush. It is a combination of highly addictive chemicals that mimic the effects of cannabis. It is this theme with which we inaugurate this new edition of our Fragments of Africa.
We also spoke to them about South Africa’s firm stance regarding the conflict in Gaza; the probable, although highly questioned, deployment of Kenyan police in Haiti; in addition to the recovery of the strategic city of Kidal by the Malian military forces, snatching it from the Tuareg people’s independence supporters.
1) Kush: a new drug affecting youth in Sierra Leone
“Kush”… This is the name of the new synthetic drug that is wreaking havoc among young people in Sierra Leone, a small country in West Africa. Consumed mainly in the poorest neighborhoods of the capital, Freetown, this substance further contributes to the desperation of the country’s disadvantaged youth.
After inhaling a few puffs, users report experiencing a state of “great meditation” and describe a feeling of “calm” that lasts about an hour. Given the high cost of the drug, everyone spends all the money they can muster. One witness, interviewed by the AFP news agency, collects rubbish to sell, while another is forced to resort to prostitution to get money.
Sometimes barely teenagers, users find an escape from their extreme desolation in this substance that appeared in Freetown about five years ago. To smoke, they gather in smokers, where the drug fumes render them unconscious.
“Young people are dying,” denounces Ibrahim Hassan Koroma, founder of the Mental Watch Advocacy Network association, which educates young people about the dangers of kush. According to him, this drug provides an escape for “people marginalized by society” in this former British colony still recovering from a bloody civil war (1991-2002) and the Ebola epidemic (2014-2016).
Faced with this social and health crisis, the country has only one psychiatric hospital; the only place to detox addicts brought by their families. For 3 to 6 weeks, they are isolated and treated with antipsychotics.
![A recovering Kush user sits on his bed at Kissy Mental Hospital in Freetown on June 22, 2023.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/213b5810-8ade-11ee-9b5e-005056bfb2b6/000_33LD2EY.jpg)
However, the conditions are basic: since April 2022, the State has not provided food for patients, and at times, staff have had to pay for food out of their own pocket until the American NGO Partners In Health (PIH) took over. the foundership.
While waiting for more resources and greater involvement from the State, patients can receive therapy and participate in reintegration activities such as sports or sewing, although relapses are frequent due to the lack of resources for adequate follow-up.
![Data on drug use in Africa.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/ed48c2ea-8add-11ee-ac67-005056bfb2b6/DLS%20WEB%20AFS%20%2023NOV%20DROGAS%20AFRICA.png)
2) Israel is accused of war crimes and genocide in Gaza by South Africa
“War crimes”, “genocide”, and a demand for a “complete ceasefire”. At the opening of an extraordinary virtual summit of the BRICS group on November 21, Cyril Ramaphosa was direct and singled out Israel for failing to comply with international law in its conflict in Gaza.
“The collective punishment of Palestinian civilians through the illegal use of force by Israel is a war crime,” detailed the South African president in his opening speech at this meeting of the bloc made up of five countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and that advocates a global balance less influenced by the United States and the European Union.
“The deliberate refusal to provide medicine, food and water to the people of Gaza amounts to genocide,” he added.
As South Africans, we appreciate the importance and value of international solidarity. As an important voice of the Global South representing a large part of humanity, we believe that BRICS has a vital role in a widespread international effort to achieve a just and lasting peace.… pic.twitter.com/zhpxYZGDIR
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) November 21, 2023
South Africa has been one of the most prominent critics of Israel’s intense and deadly bombing of the Gaza Strip – where most of the victims are children – in retaliation for the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7. Pretoria, along with four other countries, requested an investigation by the International Criminal Court into this war and, at the beginning of the month, announced the summoning of its diplomats to Israel for consultations. As a result, Israel also announced the withdrawal of its ambassador to South Africa.
South Africa called this special BRICS meeting to seek a unified stance on the situation in Gaza.
The country has long been a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause. The African National Congress, in power since Nelson Mandela’s election in 1994, often compares this fight to its own historic battle against apartheid.
China, which also supports a two-state solution and has called for a ceasefire since the start of the war, urged the international community to act urgently to stop the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.
For its part, Russia, with Vladimir Putin in a position opposed to American hegemonism, has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and reiterates that the only way to achieve sustainable peace in the Middle East is through the creation of a Palestinian state. The Russian president blames the United States for the current conflict, accusing them of monopolizing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for years without finding solutions.
3) The Kenyan Parliament has given the go-ahead to send police to Haiti
About a thousand agents could be sent to Haiti as part of a United Nations-backed mission.
In early October, the UN Security Council gave the green light to a Kenyan-led multinational mission to assist Haitian police. The Caribbean country is facing serious violence perpetrated by gangs that control 80% of the capital.
Although the Kenyan parliament just endorsed this deployment, it is currently suspended by the Nairobi High Court, which is considering an appeal brought by a legislator who opposes the project, arguing that the mission is unconstitutional.
Since the announcement to send police to Haiti, President William Ruto’s government has faced criticism. Human rights organizations have noted that the Kenyan police have a history of using force, sometimes lethal, against civilians.
In addition to the rejection in Kenya, the decision is not well received on the Caribbean island. Haitians have bad memories of the international forces deployed in their territory. The Blue Helmets of the United Nations Mission, present from 2004 to 2017, brought cholera, triggering an epidemic that caused more than 10,000 deaths. Furthermore, they were responsible for sexual violence against women and children, without the situation in the country showing any improvement during their presence.
Haitian peasants’ organizations Tet Kole Ty Peyizan Ayitien, Mouvman Peyizan Papay (MPP) & Mouvman Peyizan Nasyonal Kongre Papay concerned about the imminent foreign intervention in Haiti & widespread human rights violations, particularly in rural areas. https://t.co/K6Sy6Vl16v
— JP (@grosmorne29) October 6, 2023
According to Islande Micherline Aduel, activist and member of La Vía Campesina Haiti, an international movement that defends the rights of farmers and small producers, “What is happening in the country is the responsibility of the Haitian State.” The young activist does not expect anything from Kenya and has a very critical view of the decision.
“Nothing will be resolved. All these military interventions, what have they brought to the country besides massive rapes of women and girls and the looting of our natural resources?”
4) Recapture of the city of Kidal by the Malian Army consolidates the junta in power in its decision to break ties with France
The junta led by Mali has retaken Kidal, a strategic city in the north of the country that was in the hands of Tuareg independence fighters for 11 years. For the Malian military, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, who came to power after a coup d’état, this victory is monumental.
Kidal had a crucial symbolic importance for the Malian central power. For a decade, this city on the edge of the desert, on the border with Algeria, escaped the control of Bamako and was under the domination of the fighters of the ‘Cadre stratégique permanent’ (CSP), which brings together the main armed pro-independence groups of the northern Mali. For many in the Malian military and politics, Kidal represented an affront to national sovereignty.
![The city of Kidal, in northern Mali, is more than 1,500 km from the capital, Bamako.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/6dea8712-8ade-11ee-a9f5-005056a90284/DLS%20WEB%2023NOV%20MAP%20MALI.png)
On Tuesday, November 14, the Army entered the city and spared no resources to retake it. According to the CSP, the military used drones and fighter jets, backed by armored vehicles, forcing the rebels to abandon the city. However, the Malian Army did not act alone: Russian mercenaries from the paramilitary group Wagner were at the forefront.
The colonels in power in Bamako do not give much importance to the accusations of abuses against hundreds of civilians committed by Wagner’s militiamen and documented by the UN. Kidal’s recovery reinforces his decision to request the departure of France to ally with Russia. Among other frictions, Bamako reproached Paris for the failure of its military operations to control all of Malian territory and the reappearance of the independentists on the one hand and the Islamist armed groups on the other.
The big question now is whether the Army and its Wagner allies will be able to maintain control of Kidal. The city is predominantly Tuareg and its recapture by Bamako has not been well received by its inhabitants, who fear the Malian soldiers and their Wagner allies. For its part, the CSP does not give up and promises to resist.
Furthermore, the region is a stronghold of the jihadist group ‘Groupe de soutien à l’Islam et aux musulmans’. So, beyond the symbolic importance of Kidal, the security challenge remains a concern in Mali, where large areas are under the control of Islamist groups. Meanwhile, with this symbolic victory in Kidal, Assimi Goïta has a clear path for the next elections whose date is still unknown.
#Kush #disturbing #drug #marking #reality #youth #Sierra #Leone