For about half decades, Nigeria has faced multiple terror groups with varying degrees of success. This trend continued in 2024.
The year also saw the rise to prominence of a new terror group.
This report takes a look at the fight against terror groups, external influences in the outgoing years and measures that should be taken to address the problems
Throughout 2024, security challenge in Nigeria remained high. This gave rise to displacement of thousands of citizens, especially in northern part of the country.
Being the food basket of the nation, this further exarcerbated food crisis. It was against this background that the United Nations World Food Programme projected that 33.1 million people would face acute shortages in 2024.
The number of kidnappings also increased, with security analysts attributing this to economic hardship and huge ransom payments that came with it.
Reports say between January and September 2024, a total of 1,712 kidnap cases were recorded while 1,463 people were killed during the same period.
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In the northwest the Conflict is taking a new twist,as the region witnessed cases of Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs related killings. Complicating matters there was the emergence of a new terror group called lakurawa
While Nigerians are dealing with the armed groups, the situation is further worsened by poverty, hunger, Economic hardship, cultural and religious tensions
Despite these challenges, some measure of successes were recorded. Key among them is a harmonised joint operation, command and control centre established in the North West with Headquarters domiciled in Sokoto state.
The operation is primed against the Lakurawa Terrorist group. The Nigerian Defence Headquarters has been collaborating with Niger and Chad forces to further stem the threat of the Lakurawa.
According to data from the military, the joint operations, in different theatres led to the death of 8,034 terrorists, arrest of 11,623 suspects and the rescue of 6,376 kidnapped victims. All these happened between January and December 2024.
As Nigeria looks forward to the coming year, the recommendations are that the government should Establish and fund community policing initiatives, Ensure good governance and promote democratic principles.
Other pro security enabling actions are Training and retraining of security operatives, Investments in agriculture, health, and education.
