Ransom demands: In crime-stricken Haiti, Catholic priests and nuns are targeted as kidnap victims
Kidnappings by criminal gangs have continued to terrorise the country’s residents, not least Catholic priests and other missionaries. In 2024 alone, at least 14 priests and religious brothers and sisters were abducted. EDUARDO CAMPOS LIMA reports in an article first published by Religion News Service…
Nigerian village celebrates the return of kidnapped students
Kuriga, Nigeria Reuters The whole village of Kuriga ran towards the convoy of buses shouting “Our children are back!” and “Alhamdulillah,” meaning “Thank you, God”, to welcome home more than 100 students and staff who were abducted this month in Nigeria’s north-west. The army announced on Sunday it had rescued 137 hostages – 76 female […]
Policing the oceans: Somali pirates’ return adds to crisis for global shipping companies
GIULIA PARAVICINI, JONATHAN SAUL and ABDIQANI HASSAN, of Reuters, report on a resurgence of piracy off the coast of Somalia…
Desperate Nigerians sell homes and land to free kidnapped children
Tegina, Nigeria Reuters After armed men snatched seven of Abubakar Adam’s 11 children in northwestern Nigeria, he sold his car and a parcel of land and cleaned out his savings to raise a ransom to free them. He sent his three million naira ($US7,300) into the bush, together with payments from other families in his […]
Parents of Nigeria kidnap victims plead for government help
Kaduna, Nigeria Reuters When Linda Peter last spoke to her daughter, the brief phone call left her relieved the teenager was alive but distraught because she could not pay any ransom demanded. Peter’s 18-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was among 39 students abducted by gunmen on 11th March from a forestry college in the north-western Nigerian state […]
Traffickers demand ransoms for Rohingyas held at sea in South-East Asia
Dhaka, Bangladesh Thomson Reuters Foundation Rohingya refugees attempting to reach Malaysia by boat from Bangladesh are being held hostage by human traffickers who have demanded large ransoms from their relatives with threats of violence, according to several families and aid organisations. About a dozen Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh told the Thomson Reuters […]