National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu has called for the development of effective mechanisms to enhance the ability to prevent and counter the use of improvised explosive devices by terrorist groups in West Africa.

Mr Ribadu made the call at the opening of the Stakeholders meeting on Consolidating Collaborative Efforts to Prevent and Counter the Acquisition and Use of IED by Terrorist Groups in West Africa, on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mr Ribadu said the threat of terrorism knows no bounds, adding that it was through collaborative efforts by critical stakeholders that they could effectively confront and defeat the menace.

He encouraged participants to actively engage in discussion, get ideas and work towards solutions that would help them on how counter terrorism could affect communities in West Africa. He commended the partners for their dedication to strengthening their collective efforts in combating terrorism.

The ambassador of Algeria to Nigeria, Hocine Mezoued, said African countries must be able to take adequate measures to make the fight against terrorism effective.

These measures, he said, concern not only the prevention and dismantling of IEDs, but also proactive and preventive actions that aim to deconstruct them and seek a provision to promote coordination and cooperation.

He said the measures would also help adapt to new threats driven by technological progress. 

According to him, the use of these explosive devices remains one of the most potent tools used to carry out terrorist attacks in the interior, against the states of West Africa and the countries of the Sahel region.

He called for an integrated approach by combining security measures and initiatives to prevent the use of IEDs, and consolidating the sustainable development approach.

The German ambassador to Nigeria, Annette Gunthe, said the global trend of weaponising commercial drones tended to jeopardise much of the impressive progress many countries had made in bringing back stability.

He said the agenda of the meeting was built on the Working Group’s regional meeting of 2023, which emphasised the need to strengthen national and regional counter-IED expertise, disrupt the supply chains of IED components, and turn intelligence into the core of the scientific evidence.

According to him, these insights resulted in the formulation of the Lome Recommendations.

He commended Nigeria for hosting the event, adding that Germany and the European Union had continued to support numerous activities that contribute to non-kinetic efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism, such as the integrated border stability mechanisms for West Africa.

He said Germany had also been supporting the regional stabilisation facility in the Lake Chad region and contributed to counter-IED activity.

(NAN)