Nigeria Urges AU to Cut Off Terror Funding Through Illicit Financial Flows

• Nigeria says illicit financial flows continue to sustain terrorism across Africa.

• FG wants stronger continental cooperation to trace and recover proceeds of illegal financing.

• Foreign Affairs Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu warns terrorists are exploiting technology and weak financial controls.

Nigeria has called on the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council to intensify efforts to dismantle illicit financial networks that sustain terrorism and violent extremism across the continent, warning that cutting off funding remains critical to defeating insurgent groups.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, made the appeal while addressing the 1354th Ministerial Meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council held virtually on Tuesday.

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In a statement issued by the ministry’s Special Assistant on Communication and New Media, Magnus Eze, the minister reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to working with regional and international partners to tackle terrorism through coordinated security and intelligence efforts.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu identified illicit financial flows as one of the biggest enablers of terrorist operations, saying they provide resources for the recruitment of vulnerable youths and the acquisition of sophisticated weapons.

“A major obstacle to any progress being made 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.

She urged the AU Peace and Security Council to promote stronger international collaboration aimed at preventing, tracing, recovering and returning proceeds of illicit financial flows from foreign safe havens to their countries of origin.

The minister also warned that terrorist organisations were increasingly adapting to changing security realities by deploying commercially available technologies, including drones and digital platforms, while generating revenue through kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining activities.

“They are increasingly acquiring and deploying commercially available technologies, such as drones and other sophisticated digital platforms. They are also having what seems to be unhindered access to illicit financing through kidnapping for ransom and mining of precious minerals in territories where they operate,” she stated.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu condemned all acts of terrorism and violent extremism, expressing solidarity with victims of attacks across Africa while commending the sacrifices of military personnel and security agencies confronting insurgency on the continent.

She observed that the growing threat of terrorism in parts of West Africa had been exploited by military juntas to justify unconstitutional changes of government, urging African leaders to identify more effective strategies for limiting the operational space of extremist groups.

The minister called on AU member states to implement resolutions adopted at the 2022 Malabo Extraordinary Summit on Counter-Terrorism and the High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting hosted by Nigeria in Abuja in 2024.

Highlighting Nigeria’s domestic response, she said the country had adopted a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy that combines military operations with non-kinetic interventions, including youth empowerment, education, infrastructure development and community engagement.

“Our sustained operations have ensured significant degrade in the operational capacity of Boko Haram and ISWAP as well as the restoration of government authority in many of the affected communities. We are combating financiers of terrorist activities in the country. We are also deradicalizing, rehabilitating and reintegrating repentant ex-combatants,” she said.

She added that Nigeria was strengthening collaboration with neighbouring countries through the ECOWAS Regional Counter-Terrorism Strategy, enhanced intelligence sharing, improved border security and coordinated responses to emerging threats.

The minister described the Multinational Joint Task Force as a continental model for regional cooperation against terrorism and advocated stronger intelligence exchange, disruption of terrorist financing networks, enhanced cybersecurity, improved early warning systems and the development of ethical guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence in counter-terrorism operations.

She also urged international partners to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism by preventing non-state actors from accessing arms, ammunition, drones, dual-use technologies and other sophisticated weapons.

The meeting was chaired by Uganda’s Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Haruna Kasolo, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship of the AU Peace and Security Council for July 2026.