Kenya rallies Africa to rethink borders in war on terror

Kenya is urging African nations to adopt homegrown strategies to combat the growing concentration of terrorism along national borders, warning that extremist groups are increasingly turning the continent’s geography into a battlefield.

Citing a surge in violent incidents in regions flanking international frontiers, Kenya says regional and global partners must shift towards “contextualised, innovative, and sustainable” responses to stop terrorists from exploiting weakly governed borderlands.

Interior Principal Secretary Dr. Raymond Omollo delivered the call to action in Nairobi during the opening of the Fourth Nairobi Caucus on Border Security and Counter-Terrorism, stressing the importance of viewing frontiers as platforms for unity rather than cracks in Africa’s defences.

“It is no longer a secret that a majority of these groups in Africa operate in and around national borders where various vulnerabilities create conditions that facilitate their emergence and survival. These groups seem to have weaponised our borders against us,” Dr. Omollo said.

More than 80 percent of violent extremist fatalities reported across Africa in 2024 occurred in communities near national boundaries, according to official statistics.

In West Africa, the number of terrorist attacks recorded within 50 kilometres of coastal borders has risen tenfold — from 50 incidents in 2020 to over 500 in 2024.

On the eastern seaboard, maritime trafficking linked to extremist networks has jumped by 25 percent in the last year.

Kenya warns that without decisive action, these trends could cement border regions as permissive corridors for extremist recruitment, trafficking and tactical manoeuvre.

Still, Dr. Omollo maintained the issue lies not in the existence of borders, but in how they are managed.

“Borders are not barriers, they are opportunities for connection, cooperation, and shared prosperity. It is their porosity that creates permissive environments for terrorist exploitation,” he said.

Fragile surveillance, divided jurisdiction, and often sluggish coordination, he noted, have handed extremist groups a geographical advantage that is now as vital to their operations as ideology or financing.

The Nairobi Caucus, established in 2019, is emerging as a continental platform for African-led thinking on counter-terrorism.

This year’s forum has drawn more than 200 policymakers, practitioners and experts from over 15 African countries — including, for the first time, a delegation from West Africa.

Kenya is leveraging the Caucus to push for new-generation counter-terrorism tactics rooted in African dynamics.

Among the measures proposed are enhanced intelligence sharing, biometric-enabled smart border technology, drones, AI-driven analytics and joint cross-border response frameworks.

Dr. Omollo also emphasised that development and security must go hand in hand, warning that long-standing neglect of border communities fuels extremist recruitment.

“Borderlands should be zones of prosperity and must therefore benefit from inclusive development, access to services, and participatory governance,” he said.

The two-day meeting is expected to culminate in a joint outcome document, outlining practical steps to help recast Africa’s borders as “zones of peace and prosperity.”

By anchoring the conversation within an African-owned framework, Kenya hopes to steer the continent away from generic security templates towards more calibrated, durable solutions.