Humanitarian aid, the safety of operators in West Africa is at risk more than elsewhere

ROMA – The 2023 report was recently published INSO – International NGO Safety Organisation which recorded 60 kidnapping incidents last year involving 146 NGO workers in 15 countries around the world. You learn it from Info-Cooperation, the portal for those who work in Italian Cooperation. To reach beneficiary populations, NGOs often have to work in very dangerous contexts, especially in conflict-affected areas. To mitigate these risks INSO collects and analyzes data and provides real-time training and advice to NGOs on the ground through operational alerts, meetings and emergency coordination activities.

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The highest risk is kidnapping. The most frequent category of serious incidents affecting NGO workers is kidnapping. In 2023, INSO recorded 60 kidnapping incidents involving 146 NGO staff in 15 countries. This is fortunately a decrease from the 191 NGO staff kidnapped in 2022. Of all kidnapping incidents, 45% were related to domestic NGOs.

The dramatic situation in the Sahel. In previous years, the Sahel region has seen a steady increase in the number of kidnappings, especially following a dramatic increase in 2021 and 2022. Although the Sahel region has seen a high number of incidents, the frequency of kidnappings has decreased in 2023, also in Mali and Burkina Faso. This trend seems related more to the reduction of humanitarian operations in the area than to an improvement in the overall situation.

Another hot spot: Central Africa. Central Africa, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), remains a hotspot, accounting for nearly 31% of all reported abductions. Although material gain by organized armed groups (OAGs) and criminal actors is the primary motivation for many kidnappings in the DRC, there are cases of NGO workers being kidnapped in retaliation against the objectives of their projects. For example, in August 2023 an NGO staff member was kidnapped and subsequently killed over her involvement in human rights assessment and reporting work.

The armed groups that strike and kidnap. Although organized armed groups rarely deliberately target NGO staff due to ideological opposition, there are exceptions, particularly with l’Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) e Jto leave Ahlis Sunna Lidda’adati wal-Jihad (JAS) in North-East Nigeria and the Lake Chad region. In Cameroon, there have also been increasing cases of OAGs engaging in short-term kidnappings of NGO staff to exert influence, punish perceived opposition, and enforce anti-government lockdown orders. Analyzing the actor breakdown of kidnappings of NGO workers, organized armed groups were responsible for 59% of all kidnapping cases. Despite being the predominant actor, the number of kidnappings by illegal groups decreased in 2023, in all INSO contexts, except Cameroon and the DRC.

The five countries to watch. To watch during 2024 are five countries in the Sahel and Central Africa regions, including Mali, Haiti, DRC, Cameroon and Burkina Faso, where a higher threat is perceived. NGOs should incorporate incident monitoring and analysis into their security plans and establish no-entry zones for staff where there is a greater risk. INSO’s Conflict & Humanitarian Data Center (CHDC), the standardized incident database, is available free of charge to all partners and can be used as a solid foundation to inform NGO security risk management plans.