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Ai-enabled purple teaming for counter-drone security in Sahel
Authors
Rida Lyammouri
Niccola Milnes
July 21, 2026
Related topics: 
Security & Defense
Terrorism
Armed conflicts
Cyber threats
Conflict resolution
Diplomacy
Geopolitics
Sahel
Africa
Western Africa

Armed-group drone use in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin has scaled from rudimentary commercial-quadcopter Improvised Explosive Device (IED) drops in 2023 to a capability set that now includes First-Person View (FPV) strikes with shapedcharge anti-armor warheads, fiber-optic FPVs that defeat radio-frequency jamming, coordinated drone-and-ground assaults on hardened airfields, and a 25-drone non-state swarm. Four groups—Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP)—now operate armed drones across Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria, with the FLA's capabilities placing it among the most advanced non-state actors using drones globally.

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