Nigeria Calls For Reactivation Of Regional Standby Force

President Bola Tinubu has called for the reactivation of the regional standby force that would leverage the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in Abuja, which serves as an intelligence and kinetic fusion unit.

This was contained in Nigeria’s official statement delivered on behalf of the President by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, at the conference of security situation, operational challenges and future risk trajectories in West Africa and the Sahel, held in Accra, Ghana, between January 29-30, 2026.

The President reaffirmed the country’s unwavering commitment towards safeguarding the peace, security and stability of West Africa and the Sahel region.

He emphasised that Nigeria was favourably disposed to more collaborative and multilateral approaches aimed at dealing with security crisis in the Sahel.

According to him, Nigeria has continued to monitor and disrupt latent terrorist operations in the region through various distinct and collaborative efforts with regional institutional structures such as; Regional and Intelligence Fusion Unit (RIFU), Liaison Fusion Unit (UFL), Eastern African Fusion Unit; and Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA), among others.