in Casamance, farmers turn to cannabis for a living

The small village of Kafoutine is the gateway to a world of mangroves, an interlacing of canals that stretches alongside the Atlantic coast, as much as the Casamance river. Right here, hashish is a essential economic resource. Cultivation is illegitimate, but all fields are reserved for hemp. We are able to perceive. It sells for 30 euros per kilo in opposition to 70 cents for onions. “For those who don't develop (hemp), you’ll be able to't get by”, A younger farmer explains to AFP. Every plot can produce 250 kg per harvest. And the plant may give two to 3 harvests per yr …

The uncommon guests all testify to the omnipresence of this tradition. Massive bales of grass are saved in hangars awaiting resellers. The latter come by pirogue to gather the cargo.

Clément Di Roma AFT TV report

The cultivation of hashish is intently linked to MFDC rebellion movement, the motion of democratic forces in Casamance. This area, landlocked between Guinea-Bissau and Gambia, removed from Dakar, has claimed independence for a really very long time. Within the early 1980s, weapons began to talk. The Senegalese authorities has by no means succeeded in eradicating the motion, and since then the area has lived in an environment of armed peace.

Drug trafficking was used largely to finance the revolt. It might present between 60 and 70% of the MFDC's revenues. Geography favored it. Thus, the Karones Islands, positioned on the mouth of the Casamance River, are preferrred terrain for visitors.

Remoted lands

Surrounded by the mangrove, you’ll be able to solely entry it by canoe, by traversing a maze of canals. Senegalese forces not often enterprise there. The few seizures are spectacular, nevertheless, and provides an concept of ​​the dimensions of the visitors. In 1995, three interventions destroy greater than 180 tonnes of hashish.

Because of Casamance, however not solely, Senegal is now one of many largest cannabis producing country from West Africa, behind Nigeria and Ghana.