Countries in the Sahel region face one of the most challenging border environments in the world due to the region’s unique geography and political complexities. The vast, porous, and often unmanned border regions are renowned for smuggling, trafficking, and terrorist movement.
Regional criminal networks exploit gaps in surveillance, relying on portable communication devices to coordinate operations.
In this context, RF technology can provide a practical, scalable, persistent, automated, and effective tool for detecting and geolocating communication signals, enabling border forces to gather real-time intelligence, monitor, and respond to illicit activities.
This article presents a proposed concept of operation (CONOP) for a coherent and persistent border force operation in the Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon border area of the Sahel region.
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About the Sahel region The ten countries of the Sahel; Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal share long desert and semi-arid border regions, often with little in the way of infrastructure. Most of the border demarcation lines that were arbitrarily fixed in colonial times barely reflect the ethnic, tribal and cultural realities on the ground. Tribal groups many of them nomadic or semi-nomadic, that have lived in the region for thousands of years, can live and move across multiple border jurisdictions. In the sheer vastness of the space there is weak state presence, and that vacuum has been filled by armed jihadi groups like Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and ISIS affiliates like Boko Haram. Criminality activity in the Sahel
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Border forces operating in the remote region between the Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon borders face significant challenges in detecting and interdicting a known terrorist network. This network is exploiting the porous border area to traffic weapons, narcotics, and people to finance its operations. Traditional surveillance methods, such as fixed checkpoints and routine patrols, are resource-intensive and often ineffective due to the scale of the terrain.
Image 1: The four-border area (Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon) area around Lake Chad is a trafficking hotspot due to the high number of violent extremest groups. (Source: Google Maps)
Criminal actors use push-to-talk VHF/UHF radios, satellite phones, and, to a lesser extent, mobile networks to coordinate their operations.
As VHF/UHF radios allow for quick, cheap, low-profile exchanges, they are the preferred choice for communication, particularly for smugglers, traffickers, and militant groups moving rapidly over land. Satellite phones are used to maintain secure, long-range communications. And cellular networks, although mostly inaccessible, allow a ubiquitous method of communication.
Each of these communication methods leaves an RF footprint that can be detected, geolocated, and exploited by modern RF monitoring technology.
Deploy a network of mobile and rapidly deployed RF sensors to detect and disrupt the smuggling networks by identifying and geolocating their communication signals in real-time, enabling targeted interdiction operations and enhancing border security. Unlike other forms of surveillance that require direct visual confirmation, RF sensors can geolocate transmitters from long distances in all weather conditions.
Passive sensors cannot be targeted as they do not emit signals. Also, their mobility and deployability means adversaries will not see patterns in deployment methods and locations.
RF spectrum monitoring allows border forces to detect suspicious activity around 20 kilometers beyond their network. This capability enables forces to rapidly deploy manned patrols—Quick Reaction Forces (QRF)—precisely when and where needed, giving them ample time to investigate or intercept threats.
Image 2: Areas in the Sahel region where there are concentrations of violent groups and flows of firearms. (Source: Firearms Trafficking in the Sahel, UNODC)
Border forces will deploy an integrated RF monitoring system using mobile vehicle-mounted sensors, UAV-based surveillance, and rapid deployment RF masts to create a layered smart RF network.
The data collected will be processed by a mobile command center (inside a technical vehicle), and the software will use signal detectors rather than mask-based triggering to generate real-time alerts on suspicious activity. This will reduce the manpower required for the operation.
The operation will be carried out in four phases. Each RF asset deployed will be part of a wide-area sensor network that will hunt RF transmissions along a suspected terrorist operational area.
1. Deploy two patrol units in technical vehicles equipped with RF sensors in rugged cases, which will remain in one location. These vehicles should be strategically placed and potentially equipped with additional sensors and telescopic masts.
2. Deploy two patrol units in technical vehicles with a tethered drone in the cargo bed with an integrated RF sensor. At a height of 100m, line-of-site will be extended to 35.7 km, allowing the unit to operate in inaccessible areas without being detected.
3. Deploy three temporary, rapid deployment masts with RF sensors and antennas at key chokepoints to extend the network and provide continuous, unmanned monitoring. These masts can be transported, deployed, and collected by patrol vehicles and powered by solar and portable generators.
4. Deploy a high-altitude aerial asset, such as a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or an aerostat. These will increase the surveillance zone and act as a deterrent, potentially pushing criminals in a convenient direction for border forces.
By deploying scalable, coherent, connected RF monitoring technology, border forces will gain real-time situational awareness, allowing them to geolocate suspected criminal communications precisely. This capability will detect, disrupt, and deny smuggling networks. Instead of relying on inefficient routine patrols, border forces can then deploy more strategically and effectively, focusing their resources where they are needed most rather than relying on ineffective routine sweeps.
Cross border initiatives across areas where criminal groups are known to run trafficking routes can help all countries involved by sharing costs and information—stemming the flow of illegal goods into and out of multiple countries. Regional cooperation can act as a force multiplier, saving millions of lost dollars and lives.
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Strategic intelligence gathering, early warning, signal-based detectors, and accurate geolocations can all help avoid conflict, manage hostile neighbors, and detect terrorist activity or unauthorized movement of goods and people.
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