The African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) have called for systemic peer learning, enhanced intelligence interoperability, and robust safeguards against emerging technologies to neutralise the expanding footprint of transnational terrorist networks across the continent.
The officials spoke at the High-Level African Lessons Learned Forum in Abuja, where representatives from the African Union Counter-Terrorism Centre (AUCTC) and the United Nations emphasised that regional security architectures must pivot from reactive military engagements to proactive, human-centric prevention strategies.
The Director of the AUCTC, Dr. Lakhdar Idriss Lallati, speaking on behalf of the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, said the Abuja gathering represents the third chapter of the strategic “Abuja Process,” building upon the foundational Abuja Declaration of April 2024 and the diagnostic Senior Officials Dialogue hosted in Madrid in May 2026.
Dr. Lallati revealed that in the first quarter of the year alone, the AUCTC recorded over 1,200 terrorist attacks across Africa, resulting in more than 3,800 fatalities, underscoring that a counterterrorism lesson learned at great cost in one region must be systematically shared to prevent identical tragedies elsewhere.
Detailing the operational priorities of the AU Continental Strategic Plan of Action on Counterterrorism (2026 to 2030), Dr. Lallati emphasized that while terrorist organizations cross national borders within hours, actionable intelligence frequently takes weeks to travel between institutional agencies due to an underlying deficit of trust.
He further cautioned that digital platforms, mobile payment systems, and artificial intelligence algorithms are actively weaponized by insurgents to move ransom funds and generate synthetic media, noting that the AUCTC recently partnered in Abuja with the Sahel Fusion Liaison Unit to train regional security trainers in countering online radicalization.
Reinforcing these positions, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed asserted that building institutional trust requires absolute respect for human rights, the rule of law, and accountability, noting that civilian populations share intelligence only when confident that doing so will not compromise their safety.
Mohammed stressed that the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence and synthetic media by terrorist groups demands coordinated oversight among governments, technology companies, and civil society, warning that technological tools must be tightly regulated to support early warning systems rather than extremist recruitment.
The UN Deputy Secretary-General commended Nigeria’s non-kinetic frameworks, including Operation Safe Corridor, stressing that rehabilitation and reintegration efforts remain successful only when victim justice is visibly served, receiving communities participate in reconciliation, and young people are provided with sustainable education and economic opportunities.
Both leaders maintained that genuine international partnerships must prioritise African ownership and institutional priorities over external foreign calendars, urging delegates to transparently examine operational failures alongside successes to establish permanent, professional collaboration networks across Africa.
