West Africa territory in the south Atlantic Ocean. In the United Nations scheme of African regions, the region includes 17 states and the island of Saint Helena, an overseas territory: Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Niger are mostly in the Sahel, a transition zone between the Sahara desert and the Sudanian Savanna, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Nigeria compose Guinea, the traditional name for the area near the Gulf of Guinea, Cape Verde is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean, Mauritania lies in the Maghreb, the northwestern region of Africa that has historically been
West Africa Coast Initiative assistance as the best safeguard against narcotics-trafficking and the creation of drug-dependent economies. Oil theft, or “bunkering”, in the Niger Delta is a key driver of pollution, as well as political instability, and the West Africa Coast Initiative will provide technical assistance to address it. In Nigeria, 55 million barrels of oil a year (a tenth of their entire production) are lost through theft and smuggling. Oil bunkering is a source of pollution, corruption, and revenue for insurgents and criminal groups, particularly in the Niger Delta. The West Africa Coast Initiative is a collaboration of the According to the UNODC,