In April, Islamic State West Africa (ISWAP) – a derivative of Boko Haram in parts of Nigeria and part of the Sahel, and an affiliate of the Islamic State – deployed four armed drones carrying hand-rena bombs in an attempt to attack a military base in Borno in northeastern Nigeria. This was the first time a banned group had used drones for direct attacks. This is a step up from surveillance and reconnaissance cases.
The incident was an indicator that terrorist organizations operating in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly integrating digital technology, social media platforms, and even artificial intelligence (AI) into operational strategies and promotional activities.
This technological adaptation presents major challenges in counterterrorism in regions like the Lake Chad Basin, affecting countries including Nigeria and Islamic State Sahel (ISSP) as the Islamic State Sahel (ISSP) continue its ideological struggle and coordination activities.
Social Media as a Battlefield and Recruitment Tool
One of the key digital tools these groups are exploiting is social media, allowing radical ideologies to be spread and adopted. According to Humangle, platforms like Telegram and Tiktok are preferred due to their more generous moderation policies compared to platforms like Facebook and X. For example, ISWAP uses Telegram and WhatsApp extensively for propaganda, surveillance and communication.
Their media team portrays ISWAP as a successful jihadist organization, aiming to leverage these platforms to boost adoption within Islamic state networks and strengthen its global position. The ability to quickly share content from the battlefield is facilitated by equipping a dedicated vehicle with mobile internet service hours after an attack.
The tactic used online to avoid detection is hiring coded languages containing emojis, allowing groups to publicly discuss plans while they are hidden in sight. Humangle’s extremism and extremism reporter Aliyu Dahiru noted that understanding these sensitiveness requires extensive surveillance and contextual analysis. He also pointed out that automated moderation tools are less effective because much of the communication is a dialect rather than a standard Arabic language. Despite efforts by social media companies to remove extremist content, these groups are resilient and frequently create new accounts. Evasion tactics on platforms like Tiktok include using slightly modified usernames, making your account temporarily private, restricting comments on sensitive videos, and using alternative spellings of prohibited hashtags.
New threats to AI exploitation
An important and growing concern is the exploitation of generated AI by terrorist groups and their supporters. Generated AI can create new content such as text, images, audio, video, etc., and can provide benefits for malicious purposes such as interactive adoption, propaganda development, and impact via social media. AI can make propaganda more broad, more efficient and tailor its audience to your target. A report from the African Union on Peace and Security shows that terrorist groups are early adopters of emerging technologies, and AI is no exception.
Following the fatal attack in Moscow in March 2024, IS supporters circulated AI-generated video breaking news about the group’s global operations within the pro IS communications channel. These broadcasts feature realistic AI-generated characters that mimic news stations, reading official dispatches and are mouthpieces like AMAQ Agency.
Other targeted AI-generated news broadcasts are businesses in the Middle East and Africa. This shows a pivotal change and demonstrates the stimulating interest among IS supporter networks, particularly ISKPs of the ISKPs, which operate in regions including Africa when integrating AI into media creation via ISSPs. The strategic objective of these AI-generated news broadcasts is to bypass platform moderation, push AI-driven content, reaching a wider audience on networks such as X and Facebook.
This strategy develops disinformation by using branding similar to mainstream networks such as CNN and Al Jazeera, according to today’s Homeland Security news reports. Propaganda advocates using free AI tools to share content creation and guides on AI translators. Experts expect that AI use will expand beyond the media, hacking operations, potentially expanding the development of autonomous weapons systems.
Use cryptocurrency to raise fearful funds
Technology also plays a role in terrorist financing. ISWAP and ISSP rely on a variety of methods, including modern cryptocurrencies and traditional Hawaiian networks. They generate millions by exploiting fear tor, temptations and Zakat, including taxing fishermen and cattle on the territory of the Lake Chad basin.
Cryptocurrencies like Monero, known for their features designed to make transactions untrackable, are becoming more popular. Nigeria’s large cryptocurrency market uses crypto to become second only to India worldwide with a third of its estimated population, creating a large pool of funds that makes terrorist transactions difficult to track. Hawaii Networks also encourages cross-border money movements and promotes transfers between traditional, non-banked IS branches.
Nigerian authorities are seeking to increase control of both cryptocurrency and informal financial networks. Central banks banned cryptocurrency transactions by financial institutions in 2021 (though they removed the ban in 2024), but most transactions occur outside of traditional banks. Managing an informal Hawaii network is difficult, and Nigeria is trying to use licensing guidelines to drive transactions through banks. The informal nature of Hawara and the decentralized nature of the code poses important challenges. Dismantling these networks requires joint efforts from affected Lake Chad Basin Lake countries, including Nigeria, as the group’s operations expand into the region.
“Curging terrorist financing is not easy,” wrote Malik Samuel, a researcher at the Institute of Strategic Studies, in an analysis of West Africa’s IS finances. “It requires identifying and eliminating revenue streams by encouraging community participation, raising awareness of the risks of collaboration with ISWAP, and providing employment that prevents civilians from seeking alternative livelihoods from terrorist groups.”
Effectively addressing technology misuse requires collaboration between policymakers, law enforcement, civil society and technology companies. This includes strengthening regulatory frameworks, promoting international cooperation, and investing in AI detection tools. Social media platforms need to improve moderation, address language gaps, and understand how extremists use platform features and coded references. Moderate process transparency is also very important. As groups improve propaganda AI, takedown tasks will increase, and prompt and collaborative responses will be needed. Reducing access to ISWAP technology, disrupt supply lines and preventing collaboration are key steps.
The increasing sophistication of digital tactics underscores the critical need for ongoing vigilance, adaptability and robust international and multistakeholder collaboration to address this evolving threat.
