African leaders and security officials have called for stronger regional cooperation, intelligence sharing and community engagement to confront the continent’s security challenges, warning that terrorism, organized crime and cybercrime can no longer be tackled by individual countries acting alone.
Speaking at the 19th Africa Security Watch Conference in Banjul, The Gambia, Gambian Interior Minister Abdoulie Sanyang, representing President Adama Barrow, said the continent faces increasingly interconnected threats, with the Sahel emerging as a global epicenter of terrorism, alongside transnational crime, irregular migration, cybercrime, maritime insecurity and youth unemployment. He said The Gambia has continued modernizing its security institutions since its 2017 democratic transition, and urged African governments to strengthen intelligence sharing, joint operations and legal harmonization while keeping security operations rooted in human rights and the rule of law.
Representing Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Major General TE Gagariga said security agencies must keep working together across borders despite shifting regional politics, stressing that community trust remains essential to effective counterinsurgency, warning that insecurity has no borders and cooperation must extend beyond political differences.
Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu, represented by Commissioner of Police Baba Azare, outlined reforms aimed at making the Nigeria Police Force more professional and technology driven, citing expanded intelligence led and community policing, improved training, and increased use of digital tools including CCTV, forensic labs, drone technology and AI supported crime analysis. He called for stronger collaboration with INTERPOL, AFRIPOL and ECOWAS institutions to tackle cross border crime, saying public trust remains the police force’s greatest operational asset.
The Gambia’s Inspector General of Police, Seedy Touray, urged African nations to strengthen coordination, saying the continent has never lacked courage but has sometimes lacked coordination, calling on participants to leave with practical commitments to strengthen regional security.
Separately, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Chairman Ola Olukoyede called for greater collaboration among West African anti corruption institutions to tackle terrorism financing and illicit financial flows, speaking at the inaugural leadership conference of the Network of National Anti Corruption Institutions in West Africa in Abuja. He said the network was founded on the understanding that corruption does not respect borders and that no country can confront it alone, and warned that today’s institutions cannot fight modern corruption with outdated structures, noting that illicit funds now move across jurisdictions within seconds and that artificial intelligence presents both new opportunities and new governance challenges for anti corruption work.
Sierra Leone Anti Corruption Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala said such conferences allow countries to share experiences and best practices, from asset recovery to cross border investigation, so that lessons learned in one country can benefit others across the region.
