Mr. Cezar Kale, the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, has said trafficking of drugs like cocaine and heroin through the West African had increased over the years.

He said a decade ago total seizures of cocaine in the region were less than 100 kilograms but this increased to nearly 6,500 kilos in 2009.

Mr. Kale was speaking at the launch of the International Narcotics Control Board's (INCB) Annual Report for 2011 at Jirapa.

He said the World Bank had estimated that cocaine with a street value of $6.8 billion was trafficked through the region last year.

Organisations such as the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had already sounded the alarm about the growing scale of the threat with regards to the dangers it posed to governance, security and democracy.

Mr Kale said governments in West Africa were taking action to stem and disrupt the flow of the drugs but added that there remained an urgent need to accelerate and ensure a coherent response at the regional, national and international levels.

To help provide new impetus and solutions to this threat, he said, a meeting of independent experts from within the region and the wider international community would be convened later this year.

The aim is was to assess the dangers that drug trafficking posed to governance, security and democracy in West Africa and to propose concrete measures to combat the menace.