Abduction, terrorism on the rise in Africa -Madeira

Jose Madeira, Director, African Centre for Studies and Research in Terrorism, said that over 35 per cent of abduction cases perpetuated by terrorist groups to seek ransoms occurred in Africa.

He said this on Tuesday in Algiers while addressing the regional workshop on the 'reactivation of the Memorandum of Algiers on the fight against abduction.'

Madeira stressed on the predominance of these acts in Africa, more especially in the Sahel region.

He added that kidnapping for ransoms escalated as International terrorism took a new form with the decentralisation of al-Qaida into independent groups forced to seek their own sources of funding.

Madeira said kidnappings in Africa were mostly boosted by the lack of facilities and financial and human resources, the widespread corruption and crime, the imbalance in resources distribution and political instability.

He recommended the establishment of national deterrent legal arsenal and the implementation of international mechanisms.

Madeira urged the international community to incriminate the payment of ransoms to terror groups in exchange of freeing the hostages because the ransom was one of the main sources of funding for terrorism.

Xinhua reports that several countries involved in the fight against terrorism took part in the regional meeting, including the U. S., Canada, China and African and Arab states. NAN