Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his most recent assessment is of the relationship between increasing drug trafficking and the funding of terrorism in West Africa; and if he will make a statement.

West Africa is a significant transit point for Latin American cocaine bound for Europe. Cannabis is trafficked from Morocco through the Sahel. There is some indication that terrorist cells in the Sahel may tax cannabis drug convoys. There is very little evidence to indicate that terrorist groups in West Africa are involved in cocaine trafficking.