Zürcher Nachrichten - Nigeria, Sahel militants embrace DIY drone warfare

EUR -
AED 4.031394
AFN 78.47576
ALL 98.502187
AMD 429.164625
ANG 1.964897
AOA 1005.933864
ARS 1180.700585
AUD 1.848666
AWG 1.977017
AZN 1.864996
BAM 1.962138
BBD 2.213732
BDT 133.196
BGN 1.95819
BHD 0.413731
BIF 3210.971414
BMD 1.09758
BND 1.481019
BOB 7.576128
BRL 6.602051
BSD 1.096331
BTN 94.498525
BWP 15.475115
BYN 3.588017
BYR 21512.575527
BZD 2.202274
CAD 1.565484
CDF 3152.251362
CHF 0.928493
CLF 0.02864
CLP 1099.03991
CNY 8.05547
CNH 8.118154
COP 4855.970014
CRC 562.874599
CUC 1.09758
CUP 29.08588
CVE 110.855576
CZK 25.188394
DJF 195.062282
DKK 7.466082
DOP 68.925348
DZD 146.572225
EGP 56.260435
ERN 16.463706
ETB 142.630372
FJD 2.578381
FKP 0.862345
GBP 0.85856
GEL 3.023848
GGP 0.862345
GHS 17.010025
GIP 0.862345
GMD 79.213002
GNF 9509.221534
GTQ 8.468718
GYD 229.843666
HKD 8.527892
HNL 28.12893
HRK 7.530936
HTG 144.423452
HUF 410.404213
IDR 18497.184496
ILS 4.164714
IMP 0.862345
INR 94.318341
IQD 1440.092402
IRR 46221.282277
ISK 145.697214
JEP 0.862345
JMD 173.128853
JOD 0.778176
JPY 159.934474
KES 142.148924
KGS 95.276509
KHR 4396.535673
KMF 494.670916
KPW 987.796529
KRW 1613.985388
KWD 0.337905
KYD 0.910189
KZT 571.883859
LAK 23807.364165
LBP 98679.751928
LKR 325.646668
LRD 219.824085
LSL 21.487642
LTL 3.24087
LVL 0.663915
LYD 5.415554
MAD 10.494586
MDL 19.487022
MGA 5085.31374
MKD 61.744218
MMK 2304.243531
MNT 3852.25263
MOP 8.783509
MRU 43.847525
MUR 49.47983
MVR 16.952373
MWK 1905.439904
MXN 22.908934
MYR 4.915838
MZN 70.044325
NAD 21.487642
NGN 1729.951671
NIO 40.433053
NOK 12.014565
NPR 150.980085
NZD 1.996345
OMR 0.422551
PAB 1.09758
PEN 4.040733
PGK 4.451044
PHP 62.924813
PKR 308.123638
PLN 4.314576
PYG 8805.578123
QAR 3.995299
RON 5.005348
RSD 117.775994
RUB 94.570234
RWF 1570.039737
SAR 4.116335
SBD 9.330138
SCR 15.998105
SDG 658.686866
SEK 11.000511
SGD 1.484016
SHP 0.862526
SLE 24.981228
SLL 23015.713051
SOS 630.138926
SRD 40.141195
STD 22717.697944
SVC 9.603468
SYP 14270.255073
SZL 21.487642
THB 38.137244
TJS 11.932525
TMT 3.839653
TND 3.380923
TOP 2.641087
TRY 41.706677
TTD 7.445813
TWD 36.256472
TZS 2943.58363
UAH 45.227959
UGX 4057.360747
USD 1.09758
UYU 46.708736
UZS 14264.874097
VES 79.118082
VND 28310.481802
VUV 137.262801
WST 3.120653
XAF 659.561221
XAG 0.036943
XAU 0.000368
XCD 2.970696
XDR 0.822541
XOF 659.561221
XPF 119.331742
YER 269.780311
ZAR 21.682646
ZMK 9879.537495
ZMW 30.665433
ZWL 353.420436
  • RBGPF

    60.2700

    60.27

    +100%

  • NGG

    -0.1600

    62.74

    -0.26%

  • AZN

    -0.8900

    64.9

    -1.37%

  • BTI

    0.1200

    39.55

    +0.3%

  • RIO

    -2.2400

    52.32

    -4.28%

  • CMSC

    0.0400

    22.21

    +0.18%

  • SCS

    -0.4600

    9.74

    -4.72%

  • CMSD

    -0.1000

    22.38

    -0.45%

  • RELX

    -0.2200

    45.31

    -0.49%

  • GSK

    -0.7100

    34.13

    -2.08%

  • BCC

    -1.9600

    89.93

    -2.18%

  • JRI

    0.2100

    11.47

    +1.83%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0200

    8.36

    -0.24%

  • VOD

    -0.1600

    8.19

    -1.95%

  • BCE

    -1.2100

    20.87

    -5.8%

  • BP

    -1.0600

    26.11

    -4.06%

Nigeria, Sahel militants embrace DIY drone warfare
Nigeria, Sahel militants embrace DIY drone warfare / Photo: Audu MARTE - AFP

Nigeria, Sahel militants embrace DIY drone warfare

Under the cover of darkness, the jihadists moved into Wulgo, where the shores of Lake Chad meet the arid countryside of northern Nigeria.

Text size:

Around 1:00 am, a "barrage" of rocket-propelled grenades was fired, sending Cameroonian troops, stationed there as part of an anti-jihadist coalition, into "disarray", a security source told AFP.

While the militants had disguised themselves in a nearby town as herders coming into the weekly market, they also might have had another advantage, according to an intelligence report seen by AFP: the use of armed drones.

The Tuesday morning attack, which sources said killed 25 Cameroonian troops in one of the region's deadliest incidents in recent months, comes as armed groups in west Africa turn towards the use of cheap, recreational drones -- modified into deadly, explosives-laden killers from above.

Armed groups in Nigeria and the Sahel have long used drones for surveillance and filming propaganda, but a shift is under way as jihadists and separatists kit them out for attacks.

"It's an available, at-reach technology, and it's easier and easier to use, and it's cheaper and cheaper," Wassim Nasr, researcher at the Soufan Center and journalist at France24, said. "It was only a matter of time before it arrived into the Sahel region and Nigeria."

In a major three-day battle in Mali in July, Tuareg separatists used drones against Russian paramilitary and Malian armed forces, analysts observed. In February, the rebels said they used a drone to down an army helicopter, though the military disputed the incident.

Meanwhile, jihadist groups in Mali and Burkina Faso have claimed to use drones equipped to drop grenades from above, as well as explosive-laden "suicide drones" that crash into targets, according to conflict analysis group WAMAPS.

Late last year, a drone attack wounded five soldiers at Nigeria's Wajirko base, in the northeast, battered from years of insurgency from Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters.

In January, soldiers at another base shot down drones hovering above them.

The South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies recently warned that "use of armed drones in battlefield operations is a dangerous new phase in ISWAP's insurgency".

In a sign of the military's own caution, drones were banned in northeast Nigeria in December.

- 'Spreading around the Sahel' -

Charlie Werb, an analyst with Alert:24, a risk consultancy, said over the past year he had noticed an increase in claims and reports of jihadists in the Sahel using drones, with a noted uptick since January.

"It's a pretty stark contrast," he told AFP.

"Every week or month this year, I've seen evidence of these drones spreading around the Sahel," he said, though he added that their use had been inconsistent and at times "rudimentary".

Nasr warned against drones being labelled a "game changer", adding that having a drone available "does not mean it will be properly used".

The continued reluctance of some jihadist groups to modify their surveillance drones for attack purposes, he added, suggests that drones are still relatively difficult to come by in the region, even as globalisation has eased their spread.

- Shifting skies -

For those on the receiving end, however, the drones have become a deadly addition to the militants' arsenals.

"The destruction on the base is massive. It is completely burnt along with military vehicles," said Muhammad Sani Umar, a nearby resident who visited the site of the Wulgo attack.

The incident was claimed by the Islamic State group, though local sources suggested Boko Haram might have been responsible based on their observations of the suspected militants.

The Nigerian military did not respond to requests for comment. The Cameroonian military said 12 of its soldiers were killed.

The use of drones by jihadists and separatists also heralds a shift in the air dominance by regional militaries -- which was itself marked by hundreds of civilian deaths at the hand of military-grade UAVs, notably in Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

As the skies above shift, Burkina junta leader Ibrahim Traore has been spotted at public events with a security detail that includes soldiers with anti-drone equipment, Werb noted.

But deficits remain: Major General Godwin Mutkut, who heads a multi-national coalition fighting jihadists in the Lake Chad region, noted at a coalition gathering in January that there was a general lack of anti-drone equipment among member countries.

That could pose problems if militants in the region -- largely confined to the countryside in recent years -- make renewed attempts to push into cities, where drones would potentially be "a core component... to changing their level of threat," Werb said.

O.Pereira--NZN