By Dara Ojomo
Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and the African Union Counter-Terrorism Centre have raised the alarm over terrorist groups increasingly turning to social media, cryptocurrency, and emerging technologies to recruit members, hide funds, and coordinate attacks across West Africa and the Sahel.
The warning came Tuesday in Abuja, at the opening of a three-day regional training conference focused on detecting and disrupting how terrorist groups exploit information and communication technologies.
Acting Director of the AU Counter-Terrorism Centre, Idriss Lalalli, said groups including ISWAP, Boko Haram, and JNIM are actively expanding their operations through digital tools, recruiting on social media, moving money through mobile transfers, gift cards and cryptocurrency, and using encrypted or hard-to-trace channels to communicate and coordinate across borders.
What makes the threat especially hard to counter, Lalalli said, is speed and cost: even a small, poorly funded cell can now reach audiences far beyond its physical location and move faster than security agencies can typically respond. He acknowledged that the capability to counter these tactics remains unevenly spread across AU member states.
Still, he framed the gap as addressable, through specialized training, stronger regional coordination, and closer collaboration with the private companies that operate much of the digital infrastructure being exploited. The ongoing conference, he said, is designed to build exactly that capacity, training participants in cyber threat intelligence, digital forensics, and blockchain analysis, skills aimed at tracking recruitment networks, preserving digital evidence, and tracing financial transactions tied to terrorism.
Representing the NSA, Maj-Gen. Adamu Laka echoed the concern, noting that terrorist groups are using digital platforms not just for propaganda and recruitment, but to raise funds and coordinate operations across national borders. He pointed to newer technologies, AI-generated content, drones, and virtual assets, as adding fresh layers of complexity to an already difficult security landscape, and stressed the need to get ahead of threats before they fully materialize.
Ribadu, in his own remarks, argued that countering this threat takes more than better equipment, it requires building technical expertise, strengthening institutions, and deepening cooperation between security agencies across the region. He called specifically for more cross-border intelligence sharing and faster exchange of actionable cyber threat data among West African and Sahelian nations, noting that no single country or institution can tackle terrorism alone.
He also revealed that Nigeria is working with the AU Counter-Terrorism Centre to get its National Counter Terrorism Centre accredited as a regional centre of excellence for counterterrorism in West Africa and the Sahel, an initiative tracing back to President Bola Tinubu’s declaration at the High-Level Africa Counterterrorism Summit in April 2024.
The conference has drawn participants from across West Africa and the Sahel, along with representatives from the African Union, ECOWAS, the Multinational Joint Task Force, regional intelligence bodies, and international organizations.
