Nigeria has participated in an international counter-terrorism operation coordinated by the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL), in which artificial intelligence-assisted technology helped identify 126 suspected foreign terrorist fighters.
The operation, codenamed Operation Shams II, brought together 28 specialised officers and experts from 11 countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan.
The five-day operation, held in Tunis, Tunisia, from June 1 to 5, 2026, focused on disrupting terrorist networks and their financing through digital platforms.
According to INTERPOL, law enforcement officers extracted 108,076 facial images from visual material published online by jihadist groups. AI-assisted tools were then used to automate parts of the data collection and investigative process, including removing duplicate images and assessing image quality.
The technology reduced the dataset to 6,362 unique, high-quality facial images, which were subsequently processed through INTERPOL’s facial recognition system.
INTERPOL stressed that the AI-generated results were reviewed and verified by trained officers and analysts before being used for investigative purposes.
The organisation said 126 suspected Foreign Terrorist Fighters had so far been identified from the images processed during the operation. The matches are expected to strengthen existing intelligence on the suspects, including information about their possible locations and social networks.
The resulting intelligence is being integrated into INTERPOL databases to assist member countries in detecting, tracking and disrupting the cross-border movement of suspected terrorists.
INTERPOL also said investigative leads generated during the operation were already supporting judicial proceedings in participating countries, including a case involving two suspected foreign terrorist fighters who are currently in detention.
Thousands of additional images remain to be processed and could generate further investigative leads.
Crypto Financing Also Targeted
Beyond facial recognition, Operation Shams II also deployed cryptocurrency-tracing tools to investigate suspected terrorist financing networks.
INTERPOL said the financial investigation resulted in three urgent requests to a virtual asset service provider for customer information, as authorities sought to disrupt suspected illicit funding flows.
Participating countries also held discussions with representatives of the online gaming industry over concerns about the use of digital gaming environments in youth radicalisation.
INTERPOL Director of Counter-Terrorism, María Carmen Muñoz González, said the operation demonstrated the potential of combining international law enforcement cooperation with responsible AI-assisted analysis.
Operation Shams II was conducted under the CT TECH+ Project, funded by the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments and supported by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.
