World • 15 November 2025

West Africa: Mali Faces Record Number of Kidnappings of Foreigners.

The number of foreigners kidnapped by jihadists in Mali has reached a record high, with at least 22 taken hostage by the al-Qaeda affiliate group JNIM in the last six months, as part of its strategy to undermine the ruling junta.

Between May and October the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims - known by its Arabic acronym JNIM - has captured Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, Emirati, Iranian, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian nationals, according to the NGO ACLED, which tracks violence in conflict zones worldwide.

Some have since been released, but not all. ACLED says that it does not have sufficiently verified information to provide figures on releases, particularly in the case of Chinese and Indian nationals.

Héni Nsaibia, senior West Africa analyst at ACLED, told RFI that the number of people who have been captured is "almost double the previous record of 2022," when 13 foreigners were kidnapped.

JNIM has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for ransom a pillar of its strategy of "economic jihad".

Its goal is to oust the country's ruling junta - which has struggled to contain Mali's decade-long insurgency since taking power following coups in 2020 and 2021 - by scaring away investors and paralysing the country's economy.

In June, JNIM threatened to strike any foreign businesses and industries installed in Mali, as well as any enterprise doing business with the Malian government without its "authorisation".

To consolidate its power and push for expansion in the region, the group has maintained a fuel blocade and increased attacks on tankers carrying fuel to landlocked Mali from the coasts of Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire. JNIM has also launched assaults on factories and mines.

Record ransom

Most of the kidnappings have occurred in the west of the country, where around 80 percent of Mali's gold production is mined, according to the Soufan Centre consultancy.

At least 11 Chinese citizens have been abducted in western Mali in attacks on seven industrial sites, six of them run by Chinese companies, according to the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute (AEI) think tank.

Five Indians working for an electricity company and an Egyptian were kidnapped in the same region last week.

In late October, almost €50 million was paid to JNIM in exchange for an Emirati sheikh and two of his business partners, an Iranian and a Pakistani.

The member of the United Arab Emirates royal family was involved in the gold trade and kidnapped near the capital Bamako on 26 September, according to a source close to the negotiations and another Malian security source.

That sum "represents the highest known ransom in the region and constitutes a major financial boost for [JNIM)]", according to ACLED. It is unknown who paid the ransom.

Liam Karr, an analyst at AEI, told French news agency AFP that "funds will help the group procure more weapons, such as commercial drones, explosives, and small arms, as well as pay salaries to fighters".

A Malian security source added that in this deal JNIM also obtained "the release of around 30 of its prisoners" held by the Malian intelligence services.

"Malian soldiers were also released during the same exchange. It is an astounding deal in terms of its scale and the elements involved, especially in the current context," they said.

In addition to foreign hostages, JNIM is holding dozens of Malian hostages, including soldiers, state representatives, workers and ordinary civilians.

Security vacuum

For Rida Lyammouri, a researcher at the Policy Center for the New South, this type of ransom will allow the JNIM to "maintain its current level of military engagement, including the economic blockade on Bamako, for a prolonged period".

"Such a haul will only serve to boost the JNIM's ambitions to expand and establish a lasting presence in the Sahel and the coastal states of Africa," Lyammouri told AFP.

The researcher says the withdrawal of French troops in the wake of the coup has left a security vacuum to be exploited by the jihadists, which the junta's new security partners - including Russia - have failed to fill.

With JNIM's grip tightening, the United States and the United Kingdom announced two weeks ago they were pulling out all non-essential personnel from Mali, while many embassies have urged their citizens to leave the country.

However, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop stated last week that the terrorists' "change in modus operandi" was "a sign of their weakening".