Federal Government has warned that Africa’s borderlands are increasingly becoming theatres for terrorism, arms trafficking, smuggling, irregular migration and other transnational threats, prompting calls for a fundamental rethink of how the continent secures and manages its frontiers.

The Director-General of the National Boundary Commission (NBC), Adamu Adaji, raised the concerns in Lagos, saying Africa could no longer rely solely on physical infrastructure and security deployments to address increasingly complex border challenges.

Adaji spoke at the opening of the 2026 International Conference of the African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE), where security experts, academics and government officials examined the growing links between border governance and regional security.

According to him, borders have become strategic spaces where security, trade, migration, identity, citizenship, environmental concerns and regional integration now collide, making conventional approaches to border management inadequate.

The NBC DG warning came against the backdrop of persistent cross-border security threats confronting Nigeria and other African countries, including terrorism, banditry, trafficking in arms, irregular migration and maritime insecurity.

He argued that the challenge facing governments was no longer simply securing territorial boundaries, but developing systems capable of managing legitimate movement and economic interaction while preventing criminal networks from exploiting border gaps.

The warning formed a major theme of a plenary roundtable at the conference, titled “Frontiers: Border Demarcation, Maritime Governance and Cross-Border Cooperation in a Changing Security Landscape.”

The session brought together senior NBC officials and the Force Commander of the Multi-National Maritime Task Force in the Gulf of Guinea, Commodore M. S. Shettima.

The commission’s head of press and public relations, Chinwe Udouwem, in a statement yesterday, said participants examined boundary delimitation, transboundary security threats, and maritime governance, with terrorism, banditry, arms trafficking, irregular migration, smuggling, and maritime insecurity identified as major challenges requiring coordinated regional responses.

Adaji also called for stronger collaboration among governments, academia, border communities and development partners, saying sustainable solutions could not be achieved by security agencies alone.

His position places greater emphasis on border communities and research institutions in addressing security challenges that frequently transcend national jurisdictions.

The ABORNE conference, held in Lagos from August 24 to 28, is themed “The Connected Borderlands, Socio-Cultural Integration, and the Centrality of Policy, Research, and Security.”