Nigeria has called on the African Union (AU) to strengthen efforts to curb illicit financial flows that fund terrorism and violent extremism across the continent.
The Federal Government also reaffirmed its commitment to working with African countries and international partners to combat terrorism through stronger cooperation.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, made the call during the 1354th Meeting of the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) at the ministerial level, held virtually on Tuesday.
The meeting was chaired by Uganda’s Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Haruna Kasolo, who currently serves as Chairperson of the PSC for July 2026.
According to a statement from the minister’s media aide, Magnus Eze, Odumegwu-Ojukwu said illicit financial flows continue to provide terrorist groups with the resources needed to recruit fighters and acquire weapons.
She urged the Peace and Security Council to prioritise stronger international cooperation in preventing, tracing, recovering and returning illicit funds to their countries of origin.
“A major obstacle to progress in the fight against terrorism in Africa is access to illicit funds. It facilitates the recruitment of youths and the procurement of lethal weapons by terrorist groups,” she said.
The minister noted that terrorist organisations operating across Africa are becoming increasingly resilient and are adapting to conventional military operations by deploying commercially available technologies such as drones and other sophisticated digital platforms.
She also pointed to kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining of precious minerals as major sources of funding for extremist groups.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu condemned terrorism and violent extremism in all forms, expressing Nigeria’s solidarity with victims across the continent while commending the sacrifices of security forces confronting terrorist threats.
She warned that the spread of terrorism in West Africa has contributed to military takeovers in parts of the region, where insecurity has been used to justify unconstitutional changes of government.
The minister urged African leaders to move beyond declarations by implementing commitments made at the 2022 Malabo Extraordinary Summit on Counter-Terrorism and the 2024 High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting held in Abuja.
She also cautioned against portraying Africa as the global epicentre of terrorism, warning that such narratives could lead to the profiling and unfair treatment of innocent Africans abroad.
According to the minister, Nigeria’s counter-terrorism strategy combines military operations with non-military measures aimed at addressing the root causes of extremism.
She called on international partners to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism regardless of its motivations and to prevent non-state actors from accessing arms, drones, dual-use technologies and other sophisticated weapons manufactured within their jurisdictions.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu stressed that greater international commitment is essential to disrupting the financial and logistical networks that sustain terrorist groups across Africa.
