African states must improve intelligence capabilities to defeat threats: Lassina Kone

African nations are ramping up their intelligence processing and gathering capabilities as they face new threats, according to Lassina Kone, President of the African Network of Parliamentary Security Committee Members. 

“No war today is won with guns alone. It is about information,” Kone told Global South World in an interview at the Crans Montana Forum.

His grouping unites politicians from defence committees across Africa, and all are showing an increased interest in preventing and countering threats through human and digital information.

At the heart of these operations is the Centre for Anti-Terrorist Intelligence Operations, which works closely with Kone’s Network.

As well as building information-sharing structures, personal relationships remain important on the continent. Kone noted the example of the Alliance of Sahel States, which has officially separated from many of the multilateral organisations in the region. Intelligence continues to be shared through informal channels, however, because many officers from different militaries have studied or served together in the past, he said.

And while Kone hailed the role of Artificial Intelligence to analyse signals from social media and other sources, he believes firmly in the primacy of human sources. To leverage these, he calls on military leaders to consider not only how they fight their enemies but also how they can build trust with their own populations.

“Our role [as politicians specialising in defence] is to go on the ground and talk with the security forces so that they don't frighten the population and tell the population not to be afraid of the security forces. They need to collaborate together, they need to do activities together so that they can regularly exchange information.“

The threat from terrorism on the continent has been increasing in the past decade. According to figures from the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, 2023 saw the highest-ever number of killings attributed to Islamist terrorism at 23,000. Better coordination, better intelligence and most importantly, confidence between the public and security forces will all be needed to fight the danger.

Videography: Anoir4art