A survey carried out by Constellis shows that Nigeria is one of the four countries that recorded 40 percent of the global kidnapping cases in 2019. The other countries are Cambodia, Togo and the Philippines. According to the report Nigeria recorded 10 percent while Cambodia, Togo and the Philippines recorded 12, 10, and eight percent respectively.
Constellis, a private organization base in the United States that provides risk management, humanitarian, social intelligence, training and operational support services to governments across the world and private organisations, in its Kidnapping for Ransom Insights Report for 2019 analysed the global kidnapping cases.
In the report, Africa has the highest number of kidnapped cases while Europe recorded the least. The report also categorized victims of kidnapping according to their regions. South-East Asians and South-Asians are the most recorded victims of kidnapping globally. The region recorded 64.6 percent of all the recorded, followed by Africans, 19.6 percent while North Americans recorded the least with 0.4 percent.
Globally, those in the Maritime sector are mostly prone to kidnapping compared to other occupations. Between November and December 2019, the maritime sector recorded 44.2 percent of the global records. In Africa, Migrants are more at risk of being kidnapped while in the Americas, tourist and migrants are prone to kidnapping. In other parts of the world, in Asia, tourists are the most targeted group while Europe and the Middle-East, migrants and maritime workers are the most targeted kidnap victims respectively.
Also, between November and December 2019, Mexico, Greece, Iran, the Philippines and Libya occupy the top of the log of country where kidnap of foreign citizens happen. Nigeria, Cambodia, Togo, China and Cameroun all occupy fifth, sixth, seventh eighth, ninth and tenth positions respectively.
On piracy, the report noted that there was nearly 40 percent increase in maritime hostilities between November and December 2019 compared to the previous two months. “The increase was attributed predominantly to a spike in piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. Of concern, kidnapping more than tripled during the reporting period, with over 90 percent occurred in the Gulf of Guinea,” the report noted.
