Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, former Chief of Staff to late President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday saidt over 1,000 insurgent groups are currently operating within the African continent, majority of whom he said were deadly.
Gambari, therefore, called on the African leaders to strengthen Defence industries and own its technologies in order to address the threats, saying it was high time for the African nations to design and build their own security architecture that guarantees human security.
He stated this at the International Conference, Abuja, venue of the maiden edition of the 2025 African Chiefs of Defence Staff summit with the theme: “Combating contemporary threats to regional peace and security in Africa: the role of strategic defence collaboration”.
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Checks by our correspondent, who covered the summit showed that out of the 54 African countries that were invited to participate, 36 were represented.
Notably, Niger Republic representatives honoured the invitation but Mali and Burkina Faso were conspicuously absent. Their absence might not be unconnected with the political tension between the countries and the regional bloc, ECOWAS.
Speaking while delivering his goodwill message, Gambari, also a former Minister of external affairs and former Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, called on African nations to first secure their various nations before securing the region and continent at large.
“We have to first secure our countries before we can secure our region, and then the continent. Securing Nigeria has placed Nigeria at the forefront of securing the region and continent. There are over 1000 insurgency groups operating in Africa,” the former aide to the late President said.
Earlier, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, said the challenges bedeviling the continent defies borders, hence the need for collaborative efforts.
According to him, there is a need for an African-led security architecture to secure its citizens, adding that the Nigerian Armed Forces are ready to work with their colleagues across borders to tame terrorism and other threats.
The four-star General maintained that the enemy is within, and as such “we (African countries) must be the architect of our defence and security.”