By Ijeoma Agbafo
Nigeria has called on the African Union (AU) to strengthen efforts to combat illicit financial flows that continue to fund terrorism and violent extremism across the continent.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, made the call during the 1354th Meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council at the ministerial level. She said access to illicit funds remained a major factor enabling terrorist groups to recruit young people, acquire sophisticated weapons and sustain their operations.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu urged the AU and the international community to enhance cooperation in preventing, tracing, recovering and returning proceeds of illicit financial flows to their countries of origin. She also called on foreign partners to prevent non-state actors from obtaining arms, ammunition, drones and other advanced weapons manufactured within their territories.
The minister condemned terrorism and violent extremism in all forms and expressed Nigeria’s solidarity with victims of attacks across Africa. She commended the sacrifices of security forces confronting insurgents. She reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to implementing the resolutions of the 2022 Malabo Extraordinary Summit on Counter-Terrorism and the 2024 High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting held in Abuja.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu warned that terrorist groups were becoming more resilient by exploiting modern technologies, including drones, and financing their activities through kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining. She stressed that stronger regional and international collaboration was essential to deny the groups the resources needed to sustain their operations.
