The Global Advisor Kidnap & extortive crime | April 2025
Middle East and North Africa
Although numbers of reported kidnaps in Syria decreased over the first quarter of 2025 relative to the same period in 2024, this was likely largely a by-product of a more opaque reporting environment rather than a decline in actual cases. The changing security dynamics since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 have created a security vacuum that various threat actors, including criminal and Islamist extremist groups, have exploited to escalate their reliance on kidnapping as a threat tactic and revenue source. Financially motivated criminal groups will continue to engage in kidnaps in the Homs and Daraa governorates. Meanwhile, competing armed forces, including forces affiliated with former Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and pro-Assad forces, will rely on the crime as a means of asserting territorial control and interrogating individuals perceived affiliation with political opponents. Commercial personnel continue to face a prevalent detention threat in Iran , which has a long-standing precedent of engaging in “hostage diplomacy” to secure concessions from detainees’ host governments. The detention threat to foreign and dual nationals will likely be exacerbated by the formal resumption of the US policy of maximum pressure in early February and worsening relations with the West. Iran will likely escalate its reliance on hostage diplomacy as a coercive tactic to gain leverage in diplomatic and economic negotiations, as exemplified by the emergence of reports in mid-February of two British nationals who had been detained under espionage charges. Tehran will continue to hold detainees in custody for protracted periods, often years, until it can secure a political or economic concession in return for their release.
Large swathes of desert terrain in southern Algeria and its proximity to the unstable Sahel region will continue to enable kidnap groups to carry out cross-border incursions, sustaining an elevated kidnap threat. While abductions of foreign nationals will remain rare in southern Algeria given their low numbers, Sahel-based Islamist extremist groups, as well as local bandits and criminal groups, will retain the intent and capability to target foreign nationals when an opportunity arises. Unidentified kidnappers in January abducted a Spanish tourist in southern Algeria, before a Mali-based rebel group secured his release, reportedly in the Menaka region of Mali. The detention threat in Yemen over Q1 remained closely tied to developments in the broader Middle East and the Houthi rebel group’s ongoing efforts to assert control over humanitarian organisations. In January, following the early days of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian militant movement Hamas, the Houthis released the 25-member crew of the commercial cargo vessel Galaxy Leader, detained since November 2023. However, the Houthis have continued to pose a detention threat to local and foreign individuals with perceived affiliations to the West, including staff of humanitarian or inter-governmental organisations. Further detentions remain likely over the coming months as the Houthis seek to tighten control over humanitarian organisations in the country.
69 % of abductions happened in transit/outdoors 76 % of abductions resolved in less than 8 days 7 sectors affected
Key developments January to March 2025
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) saw the number of reported kidnaps over the first quarter of 2025 decrease relative to the same period in 2024. Much of the decrease in the region
was due to a marked reduction in reported kidnaps in Syria , where
media shifted towards reporting on the general security situation rather than on specific incidents. Authorities in Iran have continued to rely on hostage diplomacy, amid worsening relations with the West and the resumption of the US “Maximum Pressure” policy under the Trump administration. Porous borders in southern Algeria have continued to drive an elevated kidnap threat by enabling kidnap groups to engage in cross-border kidnaps. Yemen continued to feature elevated detention threats, particularly to staff of humanitarian or inter-governmental organisations.
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