Interpol Raises Alarm Over Rising IED Attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon

Interpol has revealed that Nigeria recorded 1,934 incidents involving Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) between 2017 and 2024, while neighbouring Cameroon witnessed a 421 per cent increase in such attacks between 2024 and 2025.

The international policing organisation said the North-East remained the epicentre of IED-related violence in Nigeria, while Cameroon recorded 99 casualties from IED attacks in 2025 alone.

Speaking during the Watchmaker Post-Blast Investigation Training in Abuja, Interpol General Secretariat officer Lasha Giorgidze warned that civilian casualties linked to explosive attacks were increasing at an alarming rate.

“In 2024 alone, civilian harm surged by 177 per cent compared to the previous year. In the first six months of 2025, we have already seen 65 fatalities, exceeding the full-year total of 2024,” he stated.

Giorgidze referenced the coordinated suicide bombings carried out in Maiduguri in March 2026, which reportedly killed at least 27 people and injured 146 others.

According to him, IED attacks continue to escalate across areas affected by insurgency and terrorism, underscoring the need for stronger investigative and intelligence-gathering capabilities.

He explained that Interpol’s 2024 security assessments in Nigeria and Cameroon identified post-blast investigation as a critical weakness, leading to the development of the joint training programme.

Highlighting the transnational nature of the threat, Giorgidze stressed that terrorist networks operate across borders.

“IED components, precursor materials and financing networks in the Lake Chad Basin do not stop at checkpoints. They traverse national borders,” he said.

He further disclosed that explosive devices planted along supply routes accounted for about 60 per cent of casualties recorded in 2024.

The Interpol official warned that terrorist organisations are adopting increasingly advanced techniques, including command-detonated systems, pressure-plate triggers, secondary explosive devices and modified commercial drones.

He said the objective of the training is to strengthen the ability of security personnel to gather intelligence from blast scenes and use forensic evidence to identify and dismantle terrorist networks.

The programme includes modules on scene security, evidence preservation, device reconstruction, forensic exploitation, intelligence analysis, chain-of-custody management and information sharing among law enforcement agencies.

Giorgidze also acknowledged Canada’s support for regional counter-IED initiatives through the Watchmaker and CHEMEX programmes.

The training brought together personnel from Nigeria’s security and emergency agencies as well as officers from Cameroon’s National Gendarmerie, Judicial Police and National Central Bureau.

Interpol maintained that improving post-blast investigative capabilities would enhance intelligence collection, support successful prosecutions and strengthen regional counterterrorism operations.

Africans Angle News