FireTofu
When streets become pharmacies: Booming illicit markets in Central Africa

World · en

When streets become pharmacies: Booming illicit markets in Central Africa

UN News · Official source · Oct 6, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC

Antibiotics, malaria treatments, painkillers, opioids. More than 250 tonnes of medical products were seized over six years in Central Africa. Behind those numbers is an illicit market that thrives not simply despite the region’s fragile health systems, but in part because of them.