ASSESSMENT OF THE USE OF IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES BY NON-MILITARY ACTORS AND NATIONAL SECURITY CHALLENGES IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA

Abstract

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have emerged as a defining feature of guerrilla warfare, increasingly weaponised by non-military actors (NMAs) across Nigeria’s conflict landscape. While considerable scholarly attention has focused on Northeastern Nigeria, the deployment of IEDs by criminal and secessionist groups in Southeast (SE) Nigeria remains under-examined despite its growing strategic, humanitarian and political implications. This study explores the use of IEDs by NMAs in SE Nigeria, focusing on their operational patterns, proliferation networks and implications for national security. Drawing on asymmetric warfare theory and the human security paradigm, the research adopts a qualitative, exploratory design to interrogate the evolving tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) of IED use, the challenges facing Nigeria’s Counter-IED (CIED) architecture and the regional vulnerabilities exacerbated by porous borders. Findings reveal that NMAs exploit transnational IED precursor supply chains, digital platforms, border insecurity and local ingenuity to sustain low-cost, high-impact explosive violence. This violence disrupts military operations at strategic, operational, and tactical levels, while also devastating civilian lives and infrastructure, eroding economic activities and precipitating forced displacement and trauma. The study also highlights the fragmented coordination among security agencies, weak indigenous defence innovation and limited community intelligence networks as significant gaps in Nigeria’s CIED strategy. This research makes a unique contribution by shifting analytical focus to the SE, identifying the convergence between historical marginalisation, tactical adaptation by NMAs and institutional inertia. Policy recommendations include the development of an indigenous CIED doctrine, enhanced interagency collaboration, strengthened border governance and community-based early warning systems. These findings contribute to scholarly and policy discourses on terrorism, national security and hybrid warfare in underexplored landscapes of the Global South, with broader implications for counterterrorism approaches in similarly affected regions. The study concluded that with the elimination of IEDs as a means of guerrilla warfare, innocent lives would be saved and properties preserved in Nigeria.