ISIS Receives US$45 Million from Kidnapping, Expert Says
19 October 2018 18:39 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has received between US$35 million and US$45 million in ransom payments last year. A United Nations expert monitoring sanctions against Aal-Qaeda, Yotsna Lalji, told a meeting of UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee that an "estimated US$120 million in ransom was paid to terrorist groups between 2004 and 2012."
Lalji said that kidnapping for ransom "continues to grow," as demonstrated by the money the extremist group has collected, up to US$45 million in last year. She added that terrorist groups can choose between carrying out kidnappings by themselves or - in the case of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula - working with tribesmen in Yemen who deliver hostages for a fee.
Moreover, she exposed that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates from Yemen, received US$20 million in ransom between 2011 and 2013, while Al-Qaeda's affiliate organization, the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in North Africa, received US$75 million over the past four years.
Lalji added that the Al-Qaida-linked extremist groups Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Shabab in Somalia "have also collected millions of dollars over the past years," and the Abu Sayyaf militant group in the Philippines has received about US$1.5 million in the form of ransom.
TIME | RINDU P. HESTYA