Africa’s First Narco State

As illustrated by this stunningly brutal photo essay, shit is going down in Guinea-Bissau with that country’s catastrophic drug business. And as can be further seen in these uncensored, even more provocative photos by the same photographer, that shit ain’t pretty.

A double assassination of the country’s president and army chief last spring and a spiraling out-of-control cocaine trade has turned Guinea-Bissau — one of the poorest countries in the world — into Africa’s first narco state. It’s the middle stop in the long journey of moving drugs across the globe since it has no real penitentiary system and open ports. And Hezbollah, al Qaida, European cocaine consumers and Latin American cartels are all clamoring to get in. The crack addiction rate is on the rise, and so is extreme violence, abductions and prostitution. The question now is: is there any hope left for this drug-addled nation?

Photo by Marco Vernaschi