How frustrating it is to see big tobacco companies targeting Africa. It has been a growing trend in recent years and yet not enough is being done by anyone to stop it. As soon as life became too difficult for the purveyors of death in Europe and the United States, they began to immediately target the less safeguarded markets in Africa. In Europe, not only is advertising is banned, but there are also strict regulations around sponsorship. Cigarettes are heavily taxed and they can only be sold in large numbers. All these steps aim to make smoking not only prohibitively expensive but unattractive to young people. Unfortunately none of these things are happening in Africa and the big unscrupulous tobacco companies are moving in for the kill. A recent BBC investigation has revealed that a British tobacco giant is breaking its own marketing code covering the sale of cigarettes to young people in Africa. The BBC has found evidence in Nigeria, Malawi and Mauritius of rules being broken. In particular, BBC Two’s This World found single cigarettes - which campaigners say are attractive to young people - were being promoted and sold. The company involved, British American Tobacco (BAT), says it does not encourage the sale of single “sticks”. This investigation was carried out in the countries mentioned above but it begs the question what would be found if similar investigations were carried out in all the other countries on the continent? One would have to believe that things might not be all that different.