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Ex-Hostage: Aid Worker Kidnappings 'Big Business' as Criminals Wade In

Reuters

   Kidnapping of aid workers has become "big business" as militants often
   work with crime networks to carry out abductions, a senior United
   Nations official and former hostage said on Tuesday.
   Vincent Cochetel, who was held captive in Chechnya in 1998, said
   countries must bring kidnappers to justice to stem a steep increase in
   attacks, which are undermining aid operations.
   "We need to absolutely get the perpetrators to court," Cochetel, who
   works for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), told the Thomson Reuters
   Foundation, adding that it was usually possible to trace many of those
   involved.
   "These people can be tried any time, anywhere, and they can be
   extradited, so it's important to make sure that when those individuals
   are known everything is done to bring them to justice."
   Last year 130 aid workers were abducted, up from 45 in 2007, according
   to the Aid Worker Security Database, which records attacks on aid
   workers. High-risk countries included Afghanistan, the Democratic
   Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
   Kidnapping is a longstanding problem in Afghanistan, either for ransom
   or to put pressure on Western governments, while rebels in South Sudan
   have carried out mass abductions of humanitarian convoys to control aid
   delivery.
   Most kidnap victims are national staff, held on average for 12 days,
   according to database research in 2013. International staff are usually
   held for longer as demands for money or concessions are often steeper.

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