International partners, including the European Union, Spain and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), have pledged stronger cooperation, financial transparency and technology governance to support African-led counter-terrorism efforts.
This was disclosed at the ongoing High-Level African Lessons Learned Forum in Abuja, Nigeria.
The international representatives emphasised that rising transnational extremist threats require coordinated strategies that bridge security enforcement, human rights protection, and socio-economic development.
The Head of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Gautier Mignot, stated that effective counter-terrorism must move beyond unilateral support to reflect shared responsibilities and mutual strategic interests.
Mignot said that the European Union recently approved the deployment of 20 million euros in non-lethal equipment to support the Nigerian Armed Forces under the European Peace Facility.
The Senior Advisor for International Cooperation on Counter-Terrorism from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nuria Reigosa Gonzalez, said that the Abuja forum serves as a vital follow-up to the Madrid Dialogue held in May 2026.
The UNODC Country Representative, Cheikh Toure, has said that the Sahel region now accounts for more than half of all terrorism-related deaths worldwide, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Toure has commended Nigeria’s institutional leadership under the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) Strategic Plan 2025 to 2030.
He added that UNODC is actively collaborating with Nigerian security agencies to establish advanced interagency fusion cells.
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