The kidnapping business: Nigeria’s desperate parents


Status: 08/30/2021 1:19 p.m.

Kidnappings of high school students in Nigeria keep making headlines. Not only Islamist terror groups are responsible, but mostly criminal gangs. You are blackmailing millions – from desperate parents in an impoverished country.

By Sabine Krebs, ARD-Studio Nairobi

It was news that was celebrated all over Nigeria at the weekend and caused infinite relief among parents: three groups of kidnapped students had been released, including kidnapped children from the Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School in Tegina. A total of 93 girls and boys were kidnapped from this school in May. It is still unclear whether they were released or released in exchange for larger ransom payments.

Child abductions are commonplace in Nigeria. More than 1,000 people are said to have been kidnapped since last December alone. Behind it are Islamist terrorist groups such as Boko Haram as well as criminal gangs and bandits. Most of the kidnapped people are believed to be abducted mainly to extort ransom.

The kidnappers know that desperate parents are ready for a lot. So did the 40-year-old Abubakar Adam. Seven of his ten children had been kidnapped in Tegina. Weeks ago, he said he had paid the ransom of $ 6,200 to the blackmailers. In the extremely poor Nigeria that is a large sum of money. But then his children were not released, the criminals wanted more money in the end, Adam told regional media. He sold everything he owned, a piece of land, his car – “the only thing I have left is my life”.

To be together, to pray: In north-west Nigeria, parents of kidnapped school children gather in June.

Image: AFP

A simple, brutal calculation

The kidnapping business has been flourishing in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, for around ten years. Travelers are affected, celebrities, the wealthy and, increasingly, children too. Because they bring the public that creates pressure. The criminals speculate on that. The rural north-west of Nigeria is particularly hard hit, with devastating effects on the families affected. A region in a state of emergency that is slipping into lawlessness, observers report.

In the A kidnapping operation by Boko Haram in 2014 burned national memory. At that time, the terrorist group kidnapped 276 girls from a school in Chibok. The fate of some girls is still unclear. The international outcry at the time was great. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls was picked up by Michelle Obama herself. However, global attention has long since waned and there have been too many kidnapping cases.

Blackmail in a desperately poor country

In recent months, the number of kidnappings has increased again, observes Bulama Bukarti, an analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. He estimates that around 30,000 bandits are currently operating and speaks of a “new normal” in the country. Bukarti cites figures from the Nigerian secret service, according to which around five million dollars were extorted in the first six months of this year alone.

Figures from the Nigerian security company SBM Intelligence make the entire dimension clear. According to her, the gangs extorted at least $ 18 million from villagers from June 2011 to March 2020. A huge amount, especially for Nigeria, says Burkarti:

You speak of a country whose population lives 70 percent below the poverty line and gets by on less than two dollars a day. Parents are forced to sell their homes and property in order to get the ransom. But they also collect money in mosques, churches and markets.

Against oblivion: In Abuja, parents draw attention to the fate of their kidnapped children.

Image: AFP

A lack of prospects feeds crime

The actual sum will probably be even higher. The reasons for analysts are obvious: It is the absolute lack of prospects in the country. Many young Nigerian men do not have an adequate education, inflation is in the double digits and unemployment is 33 percent.

Kidnappings are a supposedly tempting source of income, which Bukarti also confirms: “If at all, very few Nigerian companies make as much profit as the kidnappers in the country – especially during the Covid era.” And crime has no consequences. Despite the kidnapping of more than a thousand school children since December, none of the gang leaders has been brought to justice: “There are no consequences.”

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly called for the kidnappers not to pay anything, otherwise this would lead to even more kidnappings. Security authorities want to target the bandits with military action. But the desperate parents are faced with the decision to sell assets for ransom, take out loans and ask friends and family for cash – or risk never seeing their own children again.



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