Abductions in Angola: Africa's New Kidnapping hotspot?

Angola is in line to becoming Africa’s latest kidnapping hotspot. Not only has the country witnessed an increase in the number of high-profile attacks since the start of 2015 but in recent months, attacks have seen a shift in victim profile. Initial high-profile incidents exclusively targeted Chinese nationals, prompting Chinese authorities in November 2015 to demand that Angola does more to protect foreign nationals operating in the country. At this time, kidnappers specifically targeted the Chinese expatriate community, abducting small-to medium profile businessmen, with ransom demands in these cases reportedly reaching USD 750,000. However, the recent kidnapping of a Lebanese-Belgium and French national in March and April 2016 respectively, could speak to an expansion in targets.

If indeed indicative of an expanded target profile, correlations between Angola and its Lusophone counterpart, Mozambique can be drawn. Between 2012 and 2013, foreign crime syndicates from South Asia who had exported their kidnapping activities to Mozambique were initially responsible for an increase in incidents. These syndicates specifically targeted members of the Pakistani business community in light of large expatriate movements into the country. However, domestic criminals soon mirrored their tactics and set up their own kidnapping rings, branching out to target local and Portuguese victims. A similar shift has likely taken place in Angola,explaining the recent change in target profile. However, other dynamics might also be at play as the simultaneous increase in influence and affluence of the Chinese expatriate communities in Angola has likely fostered negative sentiments towards Chinese and other foreign nationals. Furthermore, the spike in kidnappings coincides with worsening economic challenges in the oil-dependent country amid the low global oil price. As such, the presence of foreign business personnel is likely to offer lucrative opportunities to local criminal groups.

Investigations into the three high-profile kidnappings in 2016 have so far indicated that the incidents were likely carried out by the same kidnapping syndicate. In addition, local authorities have yet to discount a possible link to the killing of two Portuguese nationals in Viana on 26 April. In a subsequent security crackdown in May,Angolan security forces dismantled approximately 40 alleged criminal gangs operating in Luanda province. The crackdown focused on the municipalities of Viana,Cazenga, Cacuaco, Belas and the districts of Kilamba-Kiaxi, Maianga and Samba, and resulted in the arrest of 260 suspects. While the absence of new kidnapping cases since the crackdown could speak to success in having apprehended the perpetrators, kidnapping for ransom has already proven are warding activity in Angola and the emergence of new domestic kidnapping syndicates is highly likely.