By Imrane Binoual in Casablanca and Yasmine Najjar in Tunis
for Magharebia
Tunisians rally on November 8, 2014 in Tunis in solidarity with journalist Sofiene Chourabi and photographer Nadhir Ktari, who were kidnapped in Libya
Whether their goal is to terrorise the world with Daesh-inspired executions or just to make money, armed groups are abducting people across the Sahel.
Heightened efforts in recent days to free several Tunisian hostages in Libya highlight a growing security problem for the Sahel-Sahara zone.
From the hiker beheaded in Algeria to the Tunisian journalists missing for months in Libya, kidnappings are becoming commonplace in the Maghreb.
The Tunisian foreign ministry recently hosted a meeting of the crisis cell working to secure the release of two journalists and an embassy employee missing in Libya.
Tunisian Foreign Minister Mongi Hamdi had already met with senior Libyan officials to “accelerate the process of release”, according to the report from the December 9th gathering.
Reporter Sofien Chourabi and camera operator Nadhir Ktari of private channel First TV disappeared September 8th at a checkpoint near Ajdabiya.
Some reports said they were being held by an extremist group in Derna.
“The absence of state or government in Libya has made negotiations difficult and complex,” crisis cell head Samir Bouaziz told Magharebia
This is not the first time for Tunisians to be abducted in Libya. Embassy employee Mohamed Benchikh and diplomat Al-Aroussi Kontassi were freed last June after spending months in the hands of their extremist captors.
Libya faces abduction epidemic
“Kidnappings are not a new thing in post-Kadhafi Libya, which is now controlled by armed militias,” political activist Salah Mahmoud al-Agouri told Magharebia.
“Many Libyan citizens, including children, have been kidnapped by armed groups for various reasons,” he said. “Some were kidnapped, tortured and assassinated by extremist groups for revenge. Others were kidnapped for political motives to pressure their families, especially political and security officials, while others were kidnapped for purely criminal purposes, to extort money.”
According to political analyst Moez El Bey, “Libya after the fall of the regime and the loss of central authority has become a field of conflict of armed groups, and the business of hostages became a money-making enterprise.”
“However, to engage in direct negotiations between official and semi-official bodies and terrorist groups is fraught with risks,” he added.
“Are they mercenaries or do they have a certain ideology? In both cases direct negotiation is a threat to the hostages,” El Bey said.
He concluded: “The case of the abducted Tunisian journalists is not the only one. We learned that some other journalists were abducted. Yet secret negotiation through secure and informal channels is the best solution for such situations.”
The fortunes earned from kidnappings have been a boon for terrorist organisations. Hostage-takings in the Sahel region rose by 150% between 2008 and 2009.
In the years since, it has only gotten worse.
The international community is now aware of the risks in the Sahel-Sahara region, which has fallen prey to multiple groups with access to a steady supply of weapons.
Terrorists use hostages for publicity
The spread of hostage-taking as a revenue-raiser for terrorist organisations is a major security concern, as underlined in a recent report from the Mediterranean Company for Analysis and Strategic Intelligence (CMAIS).
In addition to the smuggling of cocaine from Latin America, armed groups in the Sahel region are making money from kidnappings, even those conducted in other countries, CMAIS head Mountacir Zian noted.
“Hostages are a big financial godsend for terrorist groups and give them a lot of media attention,” he told Magharebia.
And as the CMAIS report warned, these operations are increasingly targeting civilians in public places. This is causing terror to become a part of the everyday lives of communities.
After several states targeted by terrorist groups agreed to pay ransoms, kidnappings spiked across the region.
Khalid Chegraoui, a professor and researcher at the Institute for African Studies, suggests that hostage-taking provides an inexhaustible supply of funds – much more than terror groups could obtain through trafficking.
Since 2003, kidnapping has become routine for these organisations. Jean-Claude Brisard, an expert on terrorist financing, pointed out that even three years ago, AQIM’s income from ransoms in the northern Mali region had already reached US $65 million.
The average ransom paid to al-Qaeda’s local affiliate for the release of a hostage is US $6.5 million.
Civilians at greatest risk
The abduction strategy embraced by Sahel-Saharan terror groups leaves civilians and expatriates civilians highly vulnerable.
One example of an attack aimed at civilians and foreigners, not state security forces, was the deadly 2013 siege at Algeria’s In Amenas gas complex.
Moreover, there has been a notable increase in the number of mass abductions since 2000. Just two occurred between 1980 and 1999.
“The ransoms demanded from European countries range between 200,000 and 10 million euros,” CMAIS chief Zian noted. “These amounts enable jihadists to finance their activities, train new recruits and spread their propaganda by producing publicity materials such as videos and magazines.”
“The armed groups that are present in this region and benefit from this income include AQIM, Boko Haram, Ansar al-Dine and the El Mourabitoun,” Zian added.
Elements of terror groups Daesh and Boko Haram are already present in Derna, Sirte and other Libyan cities, Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani told state TV station al-Wataniya in October.
Terrorist are making significant amounts of money, agreed Mohamed Benhammou, the president of the Moroccan Centre for Strategic Studies (CMES).
“Kidnappings are a way for terrorist groups to fund their activities. But they are also a political tool to exert pressure on major powers, as we have seen with the execution of American nationals,” he told Magharebia.
Sea piracy is still another threat to the continent.
Attacks on ships, looting and kidnappings at sea have terrorised the Horn of Africa since 2005. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the World Food Programme have raised alarms over the persistent peril.
The World Bank estimates that ransoms netted pirates and their partners between US $339 and $413 million between April 2005 and December 2012.
According to CMES head Mohamed Benhammou, hostages are now being not just to raise money but also as “a weapon to force governments to give in”.
“I think we are seeing a new phase in the proliferation of these groups,” Benhammou said. “And each group has its own method.”
“The future looks difficult with the return of jihadist fighters to their countries of origin,” he added.
