Nigeria’s security forces are increasingly exposed as children fear attending school, facing abduction or death by jihadist insurgents.
These extremist groups have targeted communities indiscriminately, with a particular brutality toward Christian populations. The tragic reality of Nigeria’s deteriorating security landscape is reflected in the human toll: between 2002 and 2023, an estimated 10,000 people were killed, and nearly 3 million others were displaced from their homes.
According to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, the Sahel region now accounts for 19 percent of all global terrorist incidents, a deeply troubling trend for Africa.
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, all of which have experienced military coups in recent years, have yet to secure meaningful victories against insurgent groups since their respective takeovers.
These armed extremists have continued to expand their operations and extend their control over previously contested territories. Behind these statistics are real human stories, people killed, abducted for ransom, or forced to flee their homes, leaving countless communities uprooted and traumatised.
Extremist organisations such as Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Islamic State in the West African Province (ISWAP), and others have taken advantage of the vacuum created by declining international counterterrorism support, particularly from the United States and Europe.
Predictably, the countries of the Sahel are marked by poor leadership, weak state institutions, corruption, and chronic mismanagement–conditions that leave them ill-equipped to confront well-resourced and highly coordinated terrorist groups.
The West African region has experienced more military coups than any other part of the continent.
This week alone, Nigeria intervened to support Benin after authorities there reported an imminent coup attempt, sending troops to safeguard the fragile government. Such frequent breakdowns in governance create an enabling environment for extremist organisations to expand, destabilise communities, and entrench their influence.
What makes the situation even more alarming is the absence of a coordinated and unified military or political response to the rapidly escalating threat. Without collective action and stronger institutions, terrorism will continue to exploit regional vulnerabilities and push West Africa deeper into instability.
Terrorism in Africa has now penetrated every region of the continent, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which has long been regarded as relatively stable. Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, for instance, has endured brutal extremist attacks since 2017, often linked to the discovery of vast natural gas deposits in the area.
This month, the United Kingdom withdrew its planned $1.15 billion investment in Mozambique’s gas project, citing security and climate concerns. This decision is likely to have far-reaching consequences, undermining local livelihoods and depriving neighbouring countries of the economic opportunities that such a major project could have generated.
Africa has increasingly become fertile ground for terrorism largely because of weak governance and chronic leadership failures, which leave populations vulnerable and easily manipulated by extremist groups. These organisations embed themselves within local grievances and exploit community frustrations for recruitment.
In Nigeria, many conflicts are not driven solely by religious differences but by competition over land, agricultural space, and access to resources. Extremist groups capitalise on citizens’ dissatisfaction with their governments–something evident in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mozambique, and many other countries across the continent.
Africa must move away from outsourcing its security to Western powers. External intervention has proven unsustainable as Western states face their own crises and shifting priorities.
To address the growing threat of terrorism effectively, African states will need to confront corruption head-on, strengthen governance systems, and adequately fund continental institutions such as the African Union (AU), particularly the African Standby Force.
For how long will Africa continue appealing to the West to resolve problems born out of local governance failures? The continent must begin to take ownership of its security challenges, or it risks watching them multiply without meaningful resistance.
The writer is a political analyst and research fellow at the Middle East Africa Research Institute, with a scholarly focus on African governance and regional security