The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, has called for urgent action to protect children and young people from what he described as “engineered nicotine addiction,” warning that new tobacco and nicotine products are threatening decades of public health gains across Africa.
In his message marking World No Tobacco Day 2026, Dr. Janabi said the tobacco and nicotine industry continues to employ sophisticated tactics to attract young users through flavoured products, colourful packaging, digital marketing, influencer promotions and misleading claims that downplay health risks.
According to him, while Africa has made significant progress in tobacco control through stronger legislation, smoke-free policies, health warnings, taxation and cessation support programmes, these achievements are increasingly under threat from emerging nicotine products and aggressive industry marketing strategies.
He stressed that nicotine addiction is deliberately designed through product engineering aimed at making tobacco and nicotine products more appealing, especially to adolescents whose brains are still developing and are more vulnerable to addiction.
Dr. Janabi warned that there is no safe level of tobacco use or non-therapeutic nicotine exposure, noting that products such as cigarettes, e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco products and smokeless tobacco all pose serious health risks.
The WHO Regional Director urged African governments to strengthen regulations by banning flavours and additives that make nicotine products more attractive, closing regulatory loopholes, tightening restrictions on marketing and packaging, and protecting public health policies from industry interference.
He also called on lawmakers, regulators, civil society groups, educators, parents and young people to work together to safeguard future generations from nicotine addiction and preserve the progress made in tobacco control across the continent.
“Protecting Africa’s children and young people from engineered nicotine addiction is not optional; it is a moral, social and public health imperative,” he said.
