Why kidnappers in West Africa now target women

Kidnapping by militants in Western Africa is nothing new. However, security experts say many criminals are now abducting women and children to use them as bargaining chips for political attention and fundraising.

At least 50 women in two localities, north and west of the town of Arbinda, in Burkina Faso’s northern region, were kidnapped by Jihadistsjust last week, local authorities confirmed. Search operations were launched to find the victims amid global condemnation, but there has been no sign of their release.

The UN human rights chief Volker Turk said he was shocked that women were becoming targets for these terrorists.

“I am alarmed that dozens of women out to search for food for their families were abducted in broad daylight, in what could be the first such attack deliberately targeting women in Burkina Faso,” Turk said.

The president of Burkina Faso’s transitional government, Captain Ibrahim Traore, also described the incident as a new strategy by the terrorists.

“On the military side, our men are determined to confront them, so they are starting to attack innocent civilian populations, humiliate them, kill them,” Traore said when he addressed students at the University of Ouagadougou.

Signs of desperation from Islamist insurgents

Some security experts have said that the latest kidnappings by jihadis in parts of West Africa signify desperation to create regional chaos.

Daouda Diallo, secretary general of the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities in Burkina Faso civil society group, told DW that kidnapping women was unprecedented.

“This is the first time we have seen an abduction of several dozen women. Sometimes we have recorded isolated cases, but women were mostly able to move around more than men,” Diallo said.

“But today the situation is worrying, and it is as if this is a new situation today in terms of security that we must take into account,” Diallo added.

Such abductions of women and children are not new in the region. Countries in the Sahel region have suffered much from such attacks.

Easy targets

An African Union security expert who chose to remain anonymous told DW that women and children are becoming easy targets because they are vulnerable and unable to defend themselves.

“Civilians are easy targets because civilians are not armed. Young girls, and women are very vulnerable, they can be easily abducted, kidnapped, and all that because they know this will get international condemnation and uproar, they use those means,” the expert said.

In its latest report on kidnappings in Nigeria for example, the African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Conflict (ACCORD), said “the continued payment of ransoms makes the criminal enterprise very lucrative, enticing private citizens and even security agents into joining the scheme,” a lesson that terrorists, in other countries, could be picking up.

The report identified the connivance and complicity of state actors, such as military personnel, security agents, government officials, and local community leaders, in facilitating kidnapping operations.

Security experts have always questioned how these terrorists get logistical support and weapons with the trend leading to distrust between citizens and security forces and the collapse of intelligence gathering. Read More from original source