Falsified medicines: 251 tonnes seized in five years in Central Africa, UNODC warns of preventable deaths

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released a report on October 6, 2026, dedicated to the trafficking of medical products in Central Africa: 251 tonnes were seized between 2020 and 2025 in the countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). The UN agency views this as "a major threat to public health," which it writes is the cause of therapeutic failures, poisonings, and preventable deaths.

The trend in seizures illustrates the scale of the phenomenon. From approximately 5 tonnes in 2020, annual seizures rose to nearly 116 tonnes in 2024, then to more than 97 tonnes in 2025, according to figures cited by UN News. Cameroon alone intercepted 96 tonnes in 2025, compared to 2.5 tonnes five years earlier. The products involved include antibiotics, antimalarials, analgesics, and psychoactive substances such as tramadol and pregabalin. At the end of September 2026, Gabonese customs seized 17,000 tramadol tablets, reports Africanews.

A trade that thrives where care is lacking

The report links this market to flaws in health systems. In Chad, a pre-filled insulin syringe costs the equivalent of nearly sixteen days of salary for the lowest-paid public servants. In the Central African Republic and Chad, more than half of the population lives more than two hours away from an emergency care facility. Under these conditions, the street and informal markets replace the pharmacy.

Out of 228 incidents related to medical products recorded by the World Health Organization (WHO) between 2013 and 2025, 71% involved falsified products and 11% involved substandard products. One-third were detected within regulated supply chains: the problem is not limited to sidewalk sales.

Deaths that no one truly counts

In 2017, the WHO estimated that between 72,000 and 267,000 deaths per year in sub-Saharan Africa were linked to falsified or substandard antimalarials, and 169,271 annual deaths to poor-quality antibiotics administered for childhood pneumonia. In Cameroon, twelve children died in 2023 after receiving a contaminated pediatric syrup.

"The report describes a multimodal trafficking system," summarizes Sylvie Bertrand, UNODC Regional Representative for West and Central Africa, as quoted by UN News: maritime, river, air, and road routes. In the Central African Republic, armed groups profit from the trade by looting health centers and taxing convoys.

The document covers Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, the Central African Republic, and Chad, with connections to Nigeria. For CEMAC states, the challenge is not just a matter of policing: it concerns the ability of African countries to produce, control, and distribute safe and affordable medicines themselves. As long as this void remains, traffickers will fill it.