Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, and the United Nations have warned that terrorist groups are increasingly exploiting artificial intelligence, drones and virtual assets to recruit members, spread propaganda and coordinate attacks across Africa.
Ribadu, speaking at the High-Level African Lessons Learned Forum on Counter-Terrorism Cooperation, Intelligence Sharing and Emerging Technologies in Abuja, said terrorist groups were exploiting porous borders, local grievances, illicit financial networks, digital platforms and online radicalisation to expand their operations across the continent. UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, in virtual remarks at the forum, warned that terrorist groups were adapting rapidly and exploiting AI and synthetic media for recruitment and propaganda.
The UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) has documented how terrorist groups are experimenting with AI, particularly generative AI, to enhance propaganda efforts, primarily for radicalisation and recruitment. AI-powered bots can amplify violent extremist content at scale, making it harder to detect and respond to, while enabling targeted interaction with potential recruits through personalised messaging that appeals to their interests, beliefs and grievances. The CTED report notes that AI can reduce the capabilities gap between terrorist organisations and state-led security mechanisms, with terror groups increasingly using AI to enhance the sophistication and intensity of attacks and incite violence. Daesh supporters have launched AI-generated programmes to disseminate propaganda videos, with AI-enhanced translation enabling rapid outreach across multiple languages simultaneously.
Ribadu warned that groups such as ISWAP, Boko Haram and JNIM are extending their reach through technology, recruiting on social media platforms, moving and concealing funds via mobile money, gift cards and cryptocurrencies, buying weapons on darknet marketplaces, communicating over satellite links and flying drones across borders. “Artificial Intelligence can rapidly produce personalised content; drones and autonomous systems can expand operational capabilities; and virtual assets can create new financing channels,” he said.
The Acting Director of the AU Counter-Terrorism Centre, Idriss Lallali, warned that terrorist cells with modest budgets are moving faster than state procedures by exploiting cheap and accessible technologies, with the speed and low cost of digital tools enabling small cells to reach wide audiences and execute operations faster than bureaucratic response systems.
Ribadu stressed that while terrorist groups might exploit emerging technologies, they also offer opportunities for early warning, threat analysis, digital investigations, border security and the protection of vulnerable communities. “Our task is to ensure that technology is used responsibly, lawfully and effectively in support of peace and security,” he said, calling for stronger intelligence coordination, sustained partnerships and practical cooperation among African countries and their international partners.
The UN’s Mohammed echoed this, noting that the same technologies could support early warning and prevention if deployed with appropriate safeguards and effective oversight. The challenge now is to build the technical expertise, institutions and cross-border cooperation needed to stay ahead of terrorist groups’ rapidly evolving use of AI and other emerging technologies.
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