Q&A: Is the Islamic State Sahel Province kidnapping more foreigners?

Q&A with

Héni Nsaibia

West Africa Senior Analyst, ACLED

After more than a decade of protracted conflict in the central Sahel, insecurity continues to spread both within the region and beyond its borders. While the kidnapping of foreigners has been a persistent threat since the early 2000s and has been mainly carried out by al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, a new trend is emerging. In recent weeks, the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) has actively carried out and sponsored high-profile kidnapping operations, particularly targeting foreigners who command higher ransom fees than local abductees.

Have there been kidnappings in the Sahel recently?

Yes, in recent weeks, there has been a series of kidnappings of foreign nationals across the central Sahel orchestrated by ISSP (see map below).

These events include confirmed kidnappings of an Austrian woman in Agadez, Niger; a Spanish man in Assekrem, near Tamanrasset, Algeria; and four Moroccan truck drivers who were taken on the Dori-Tera road in Burkina Faso. In addition, an unidentified armed group kidnapped two Chinese nationals working for the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation in an attack near Agadem in Niger. However, this incident has no confirmed link to ISSP, as in the previous cases.

Has the number of kidnappings increased?

It’s an anomaly that several foreigners have already been kidnapped in the first few weeks of 2025; in the past few years, ACLED records two to four events of abductions of foreigners on average per year in the central Sahel. The year 2022 was an exception as the all-time high when ISSP’s jihadist rival, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), launched a widespread kidnapping campaign. JNIM carried out 13 kidnappings targeting foreign nationals — supposedly to finance its war with ISSP. However, kidnappings of local people have decreased steadily from 526 in 2021 to 222 in 2024 (see graph below).

The last confirmed kidnapping of a foreign national by ISSP was the 2018 kidnapping of a German humanitarian worker, whereas, between 1 January and 1 February 2025, six foreign nationals were abducted and are now being held by ISSP.

So what’s changed this year?

Kidnappers most frequently target local people, then people from surrounding areas, particularly groups of workers from elsewhere in the region, and least frequently foreign nationals.

So far this year, the number of kidnappings of foreign nationals orchestrated by ISSP is unprecedented. Previously, the group carried out such operations very sporadically. At present, this change seems to be driven by the group’s need for resources, given that foreigners command higher ransom fees than local abductees. As ISSP has also gained territory and influence in Mali’s Menaka region and surrounding areas, it is believed that the group also gained better logistical capabilities to hold hostages.

In a new move, ISSP seems to be outsourcing kidnapping to other armed groups and bandit gangs. Armed bandits may also be taking hostages, knowing that they can ‘sell’ them to ISSP. The kidnapping of the Spanish national in Algeria by local bandits was ultimately foiled by Tuareg rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front before the bandits could hand him over to ISSP. Similar tactics were used when an unnamed group thought to be linked to ISSP took the Austrian woman in Agadez before — it is believed — they transferred her to an ISSP stronghold.

In another development, recent kidnappings have taken place in unusual locations across vast territories. This shows ISSP’s increased reach and reflects the continued expansion of all Sahelian jihadist groups. This kidnapping campaign has been carried out by ISSP; JNIM carried out previous campaigns.

Was the Sahel safe for foreigners to travel to before this latest spate of kidnappings?

No. The Sahel-Sahara band has been unsafe for foreigners for over 20 years. In the early 2000s, the Algerian jihadist group known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat and its successor, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, began kidnapping foreigners, especially Westerners, for ransom.

For more on the Sahel, see these related ACLED publications: