Up in arms! - Nigerian firm develops cutting-edge attack drones to hunt insurgents amid latest suicide bombings

"Engineers in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, are developing advanced drone systems aimed at tackling the country’s ongoing security challenges, including insurgency and armed banditry. It comes after at least 23 people were killed and over 100 injured in a series of suspected suicide bombings in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state - for which the Boko Haram group was blamed. Footage captured during a recent test shows unmanned aerial vehicles striking designated targets, while engineers from UNICCON Group inspect impact sites and counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) equipment. UNICCON Chairman Chuks Ekwueme said the nature of insecurity in Nigeria requires precision-based solutions. “The insecurity in Nigeria is a very complex and tricky one because it is not a war, you know, and you have the militants or the bandits staying amidst the good people, the real people, the real citizens,” Ekwueme said. “It’s not a situation where you target and keep striking. So you need precision here. So that is what our solution is providing,” he added. Ekwueme said the drones are designed to operate in difficult terrain such as forests, where armed groups often take cover. “This is how these bandits operate, they come from the forest, from the bush, attack and return,” he said. “So it can manoeuvre, it can get to the forest target or kind of avoid obstacles.” Engineers were also seen assembling and calibrating drone components at the company’s workshop. “Recently, we were able to do some operational assessments on our kamikaze drone, and we’re able to observe that the kamikaze drone moves at a speed of over 200km/h. Not only that, it’s at the point of detonation. It detonates with a blast radius of over 200m,” one engineer said. Alongside strike capabilities, the company says it is developing long-endurance drones for surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as software-based systems for cyber defence, artificial intelligence analysis and electronic warfare. “Then we have the long-endurance drones, which can stay months airborne. And it can be used as a pseudo-satellite for surveillance,” Ekwueme said. “On the software part, we have a lot of solutions on cyber threats, electronic warfare and AI war analysis and the rest. So we keep researching,” he added. Founded in 2020, UNICCON first drew international attention with 'Omeife', a humanoid robot described by the company as Africa’s first. Nigeria continues to face security challenges linked to armed groups, including the long-running insurgency by Boko Haram."

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