• Super Admin
• 06 Mar, 2026

There were 30 separate kidnapping events affecting foreigners by the end of November, and the number for the whole year is likely to be even higher. Some cases of kidnapping received considerable international media attention. Two citizens of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - one of whom is thought to be a member of the Emirati royal family - were kidnapped in Mali in late September. The purpose of their visit and the exact circumstances of their abduction remain murky. Some local media outlets suggested that at least one of the men was involved in a business venture, possibly gold mining. The Emiratis were not held for long, however. Just over a month later, the men had been released in exchange for a multi-million dollar ransom, with Reuters reporting that $50m (£37m) had exchanged hands, external. "Royal ransoms, a top money-maker for Mali's jihadist kidnappers," ran one headline, external. Other especially high-profile cases took place in Niger: 73-year-old Austrian national Eva Gretzmacher and US civilian pilot Kevin Rideout. Both were involved in humanitarian work and kidnapped from their homes. Gretzmacher is thought to be the first EU citizen to be kidnapped since Niger's 2023 military coup, external, underlining the sharp security deterioration experienced in the country since the military takeover. The majority of kidnappings on the continent are of African nationals - numbers range into the thousands every year, driven by forced disappearances and banditry such as in Nigeria, where last year saw one of the worst single incidents of kidnapping on record. But analysis by BBC Monitoring of high-profile kidnapping in Africa has shown that, in terms of numbers, Chinese workers bore the brunt of foreign abductions. Approximately 70% of cases tracked across the continent occurred in the Sahel countries of Mali and Niger. Out of a total 89 foreigners kidnapped, 38 held Chinese passports - significantly higher than the next most common nationality, those from India who number 14. Most of these individuals were working in Mali's gold-rich south-western regions of Kayes, Sikasso, and Koulikoro, where Chinese companies have been expanding their operations amidst soaring gold prices, external. The overwhelming culprit for last year's spike was al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), which was behind a surge in jihadist attacks sweeping across several West African nations last year, especially Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. By some estimates, ransoms could represent as much as 40% of JNIM's yearly revenue, external, according to the think-tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). Foreign nationals are thought to be especially valuable to JNIM because they generate higher ransoms than locals, in addition to giving the group a stronger footing to negotiate with other conflict actors, such as the Malian government. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0lj18d5lx3o