The Global Advisor Kidnap & extortive crime | October 2025
Middle East and North Africa
Reported incidents in Syria decreased by 26% over the third quarter of 2025 relative to the same period in 2024, largely due to a deteriorating reporting environment as the new government struggles to establish effective security provision. However, Damascus saw a rise in reported kidnaps over the same timeframe, as the security environment in the capital has worsened since the fall of Assad’s regime in December 2024. Local authorities have relied on kidnapping to target individuals accused of being affiliated with the former regime, while criminal gangs have exploited the security landscape for financial gain. Control Risks has recorded several high-profile abductions of small and medium-sized business owners in the capital over the last quarter, often involving high ransom demands and long captivities. Although abductions of personnel of multinational entities have remained rare in Damascus, such individuals will continue to be viewed as attractive targets by kidnap gangs. Iraq continued to see a decline in reported kidnaps over the third quarter of 2025 relative to the same period in 2024, in line with previous trends. Nearly all provinces saw a drop in reported incidents over the reporting period. Despite this trend, Control Risks assesses that an underlying kidnap threat to business personnel will persist. The kidnap threat in the country will continue to be carried out by actors including Islamist extremist groups, financially motivated groups and Iran-backed paramilitary groups (IBPGs), who rely on the crime to generate revenue and assert territorial control. Kidnaps will continue to carry the potential for high impact and feature protracted durations, as highlighted by the release of a Russian-Israeli researcher in early September, following her abduction in March 2023.
Business personnel continue to face a high kidnap threat in Yemen . A wide range of perpetrators, including Islamist extremists, financially motivated criminals, tribal groups and militias, will continue to engage in the crime with high impunity. While abductions involving business personnel will remain rare due to their low presence in the country, threat actors will retain a high intent and capability to target them, driven by perceptions of wealth and potential for political leverage. Unidentified kidnappers in August abducted the deputy executive director of a subsidiary of a multinational oil and gas company in Shabwah governorate, releasing him after several hours. Employees of humanitarian and inter- governmental organisations will continue to face a disproportionate kidnap threat given their higher presence in the country, relative to business operators. Reported kidnaps in the Gulf countries have remained rare. In the third quarter of 2025, Control Risks recorded isolated incidents in Oman and Saudi Arabia. Robust security forces and strict legal penalties will continue to deter most prospective perpetrators. Most cases in the region will continue to be unsophisticated and low-level and are unlikely to affect business personnel. Incidents will continue to predominantly involve foreign perpetrators from the South Asian expatriate community targeting their compatriots or local criminals involved in financial disputes with victims known to them. The benign security environment across the Gulf countries will sustain a low kidnap threat to business personnel over the coming quarters.
78 % of abductions happened in transit/outdoors 93 % of abductions resolved in less than 8 days 8 sectors affected
Key developments July to September 2025
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region saw the number of reported kidnaps over the third quarter of 2025 decrease by 28% relative to the same period in 2024, in line with trends in the previous quarter. The decrease in reported kidnaps was due to a reduction in reported incidents in Syria and Iraq , driven by changing kidnapping environments and more opaque media reporting. Despite a reduction in the absolute number of reported kidnaps, urban centres in Syria , such as Damascus, saw its kidnap threat increase. Iraq continued to record a declining number of reported kidnaps due to a reduction of kidnap activity across the country, though a kidnap threat to local and foreign national personnel will persist. A wide range of threat actors operate in Yemen and there is a high kidnap threat to business personnel. Kidnapping-for-ransom in the Gulf countries will continue to pose a low
threat to business personnel, and reported incidents will remain rare.
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