Al-Qaeda Affiliates Use Kidnapping For Revenue – Analysis
The killings on March 8th of two Europeans who were held hostage in
Nigeria shed light on the kidnapping for ransom practice used by armed
groups affiliated with al-Qaeda.
The latest incident in Nigeria
that claimed the lives of Chris McManus, a British citizen, and Franco
Lamolinara, an Italian, reflects a growing trend by these groups of
using kidnapping for ransom as a means to finance their operations.
This
despite the fact that the Islamic world does not condone these methods,
which are rejected by a large segment of scholars who refuse to link
Islam with holding hostages.
The kidnapping of the two men was
initially claimed by a group that called itself “al-Qaeda in the land
beyond the Sahel”. Reports from Nigeria and in the Western media suggest
the group might be an al-Qaeda cell within the Boko Haram (Western
Education is forbidden) Islamist group, which is engaged in attacks
against the Nigerian government.
Expanding to other countries in Africa
After
years of limiting its kidnap operations to Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and
occasionally Algeria and southern Tunisia, it would seem that al-Qaeda,
through its Maghreb branch al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is
currently attempting to expand its profitable “kidnapping trade” to
other countries to locate new sources of funding.
According to
Algerian authorities, kidnapping operations targeting Westerners in the
African Sahel earned al-Qaeda an estimated 50 million euros ($66
million).
Abdel Razak Bara, advisor to Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, said in a speech at a United Nations meeting on
terrorism financing in 2010 that terrorist groups use the money to
acquire weapons and advanced logistical equipment.
Greed is
probably not AQIM’s only motivation for expanding its kidnapping
operations to Nigeria. Previous kidnappings led to a significant decline
in the number of Western visitors to Mali and Niger, the two countries
al-Qaeda had established as bases for its kidnapping operations.
With
the few Westerners who risk visiting Niger and Mali now taking security
measures, AQIM likely sought to move towards Nigeria, which attracts
foreigners in droves to work in its oil industries.
Although
Nigeria’s special forces, in conjunction with British commandos, were
unable to free the hostages before they were executed by their captors,
the fact that Nigeria sought to deal decisively with the kidnappers sent
a clear message that the country will not tolerate hostage-taking and
that al-Qaeda is not welcome in Nigeria. The group’s leader, “Abu
Mohammed”, was reported by Nigerian media to have died as a result of
his injuries during the attempt to rescue the hostages.
Boko Haram
was quick to deny any connection to the kidnapping of the two men,
suggesting that the captors, who are reported by Nigerian and British
authorities to be linked to AQIM, did not necessarily seek to support
Boko Haram in its ideological struggle against the Nigerian government.
Instead the kidnappers came to build a base to obtain more ransom money
to add to the tens of millions of dollars they collected in the past few
years.
BBC reported that Philip Hammond, Britain’s Defence
Secretary, said in a hearing before the House of Commons on March 13th
that Boko Haram may not be linked to AQIM directly, but some Boko Haram
factions have begun referring to themselves as “al-Qaeda in Nigeria”.
Using al-Qaeda affiliation to justify crime
The
kidnapping of the two Westerners confirms that the activity of al-Qaeda
affiliates across Africa’s Sahel and North Africa is increasingly
focused on kidnapping more than the historical struggle against the
region’s ruling regimes.
AQIM may respond by saying that it
conducts kidnapping operations because they provide revenue to purchase
arms that in turn enable it to fight “apostate” regimes, but the current
reality indicates that money has become an attractive incentive,
perhaps more so than ideological justifications, for armed groups to
resort to kidnapping in the name of religion. The activities of these
groups suggest that they are all preoccupied with getting a “piece of
the hostage-taking pie” on the Sahel.
In the past, this “trade”
was the monopoly of AQIM. However, new al-Qaeda splinter groups have
emerged recently that also rely on kidnapping as a source of income.
Among them is a group calling itself “al-Tawhid wal Jihad in West
Africa”, which kidnapped three Western aid workers (one Spanish man, one
Spanish woman, and one Italian woman) from a refugee camp in
south-western Algeria in October 2011.
The group, which sent out a
videotape showing the hostages in December 2011, is currently
negotiating their release for a reported 30 million euros ($40 million).
The group reportedly broke away from al-Qaeda because it does not want
to confine its activities to the North African Maghreb and Sahel and
wants to expand to West Africa.
Such an expansion requires
“al-Tawhid wal Jihad in West Africa” to imitate AQIM’s funding methods,
notably kidnapping, as is evident in the case of the Spaniard and
Italian aid workers. If the situation continues, it should not come as a
surprise if more splinter groups or al-Qaeda-affiliated groups emerge
in the near future, claiming to have ideological objectives to justify
their activities, but do nothing other than carrying out kidnapping for
ransom operations.
Comments