• Experts demand state police, innovations, effective governance to complement gains
• ‘Shift presents opportunity to strengthen intelligence sharing, regional security
• Development can only thrive in peaceful atmosphere, say security experts
The global war against terrorism is entering a new phase, and Africa has become its central battlefield following recent happenings in the fight against terror in Nigeria.
Security developments indicate that the United States is increasingly redirecting its counter-terrorism operations from the Middle East to Africa, with Nigeria emerging as a critical strategic ally in the expanding offensive against ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliates operating across the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin.
For years, the epicentre of global terrorism was concentrated in Iraq and Syria, but intelligence assessments now point to a dramatic geographic shift.
ISIS leadership structures are believed to have migrated into the Lake Chad region, while Al-Qaeda-linked groups have entrenched themselves across the Sahel, turning parts of West and Central Africa into one of the world’s most volatile terror corridors.
Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria have borne the brunt of the insurgents’ migration, but worsening political instability in the region, evidenced by military takeovers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic, has deeply fractured regional cooperation and weakened coordinated responses to terrorism.
Now, observers believe that Washington appears determined to prevent the region from slipping further into extremist control.
The U.S. believes that ungoverned spaces in Africa allow groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda to build bases for external operations targeting America.
Also, beyond security, the U.S. seeks to ensure access to critical resources, such as high-quality crude oil from the Gulf of Guinea and minerals in nearby regions, which serve as alternatives to Middle Eastern or Chinese-dominated supply chains, while equally trying to suppress Chinese and Russian interests in the region.
Security sources said the region is witnessing an unprecedented escalation of American military engagement, including sustained air operations targeting ISIS strongholds around Lake Chad.
The renewed offensive mirrors earlier American tactics used in the Middle East.
For instance, in 2019, the United States deployed a B-52 bomber to obliterate an ISIS logistics and training base hidden on an island in Iraq’s Tigris River, dropping over 36,000 kilograms of bombs and wiping the enclave off the map.
Similar counter-terrorism intensity is unfolding in Africa following the recent joint U.S.-Nigeria military operations, which struck terrorist enclaves in Sokoto during the 2025 Christmas period and later in Metele, Borno State, where airstrikes allegedly eliminated ISIS global deputy leader, Al-Minuk.
The operations mark a major turning point in Abuja’s security partnership with Washington.
Nigeria, once viewed in Washington with deep suspicion over allegations of human rights abuses and governance concerns, has gradually rebuilt diplomatic trust through intelligence sharing, strategic military cooperation and counter-terrorism coordination.
Military sources said troops recorded fresh gains against Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters in the North-East and the Lake Chad Islands, with several insurgent commanders neutralised in recent offensives.
For Nigeria, the expanding U.S. military footprint, while appearing on the surface to appease the Trump administration’s Christian evangelical base through claims that American involvement is aimed at preventing Christian persecution, also serves a broader strategic purpose. It provides Washington with a critical entry point for monitoring the evolving and adaptive insurgency landscape across the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin, which directly threatens U.S. interests in the region and, potentially, the homeland itself.
Notwithstanding the military victories, Nigeria’s internal security crisis has continued to deepen.
Across the country, kidnappings for ransom have continued to surge alarmingly.
Schools, markets, worship centres and highways are increasingly under siege, while communal clashes, separatist agitation, banditry, herder-farmer conflicts and economic sabotage continue to destabilise several regions.
According to a Corporate Security & Risk Management Professional/Regional Security Adviser, Austen Pabor, terrorism and extremism have gone side-by-side with the same outcomes over the years, resulting in armed conflicts and extensive wreckage across the globe, with the United States playing the role it plays to restore stability in these affected countries.
“This shift in global counter-terrorism attention toward Africa reflects how threats can evolve and where the threat is evolving. For Nigeria, this presents an opportunity to strengthen intelligence sharing, regional security cooperation, and counter-terrorism capabilities, provided the country views i…
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