Africa must develop indigenous defence technology to stay ahead of future wars

Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai (retd.), has urged African countries to develop indigenous defence technologies and reduce their dependence on imported military systems.

Buratai made the call while speaking at a high-level panel at the International Security Conference on Africa (ISCA) in Kigali, Rwanda, where he warned that rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems were fundamentally changing the nature of modern warfare.

The former Army Chief said African countries could no longer afford to remain passive consumers of technologies developed for other operational environments.

He stressed the need for African countries to build local capacity to develop, adapt and regulate emerging defence technologies in line with their unique security needs.

According to him, technologies developed for specific operational environments cannot simply be transferred to Africa without adequate adaptation, local expertise and a clear understanding of the continent’s security challenges.

Buratai called for stronger collaboration among governments, defence institutions, universities and technology companies to promote homegrown innovation and strengthen Africa’s strategic defence capacity.

He also highlighted the different levels of autonomy in modern military systems, ranging from remotely controlled platforms to fully autonomous systems.

The former Army Chief cautioned that the increasing sophistication of such technologies raised critical questions about human control, accountability and the ethical limits of allowing machines to make decisions in sensitive security situations.

Drawing lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war, Buratai called for a fundamental recalibration of African defence institutions to make them more agile and responsive to emerging threats.

He urged governments across the continent to increase investment in research, technical education and military innovation, stressing that genuine strategic capacity could not be achieved merely through the acquisition of sophisticated military hardware.

Buratai said Africa’s defence preparedness must be anchored on human expertise, strong research institutions and sustainable technology ecosystems.

He urged African countries to adopt a proactive approach to emerging technologies rather than wait for new forms of warfare to become dominant before responding.

“Africa cannot afford to wait until autonomous warfare becomes the dominant reality before preparing for it,” he warned.

He therefore called on African policymakers to begin laying the institutional, technological and human-capacity foundations needed to enable the continent to determine its own defence priorities and respond effectively to emerging security challenges.