Al-Qaida-linked terrorists have extorted a hefty ransom for an Emirati sheikh to finance their efforts to strangle the government in Mali and impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) paid more than $20 million to secure the freedom of an Emirati prince kidnapped by al-Qaida’s West Africa affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), according to news reports. Some news sources had previously put the ransom figure at more than $50 million.
Kidnappers took the victim, a 78-year-old member of Dubai’s ruling family, in September during a raid of his farm south of Bamako, according to Western officials and Malian community leaders. JNIM posted footage showing the militants attacking a hangar where the victim kept his private aircraft and hang gliders, The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported. Western officials said the victim is involved in the precious metals trade out of Mali.
The ransom package also included the release of dozens of terrorists imprisoned in Mali, the Journal reported. The incident is part of a recent upscaled effort by the terrorists to bring down the Malian government. They also have imposed a fuel embargo on the capital city of Bamako that is crippling the economy there.
“The staggering ransom paid by Abu Dhabi … to JNIM comes at the worst possible time,” said Justyna Gudzowska, executive director of The Sentry, a human rights watchdog group, according to the Journal. “Such a large injection of resources is a huge boon for the group and will enable its extremist ambitions on the continent.”
For nearly 25 years, kidnappings for ransom have been a major source of income for terrorist groups operating throughout the Sahel, according to the Institute for Security Studies. In the early 2000s, total ransoms were estimated at nearly $90 million for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb alone. According to some reports at that time, kidnappings were the biggest source of financing for al-Qaida’s Sahel affiliates, with the money helping insurgents expand and consolidate across the region.
The Global Terrorism Index estimated in 2017 that ransoms accounted for about 40% of JNIM’s annual revenue. Although ransoms are not always the primary motivation for kidnappings in the Sahel, they remain a critical element of terrorists’ financing.
“Kidnapping is also used for strategic purposes with individuals taken for political purposes and to gain strategic advantages or intelligence,” the index reported.
This year, kidnappings have increased dramatically. Between May and October 2025, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED) reported, terrorists in Mali abducted 22 to 26 foreign nationals, the highest number ever recorded in Mali over a comparable span. Those abducted included victims from China, Egypt, India, Iran and the UAE. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that victims also came from Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.
Researchers say kidnappings for ransom in Mali are high-profit crimes that terrorists use to buy weapons, pay fighters and finance logistics operations. The kidnappings also attract attention and can be used to pressure governments, foreign investors and foreign companies operating in Mali. The kidnappings help undermine local authority, spread fear and enforce control through intimidation, according to researchers.
JNIM has been quietly gaining manpower and weaponry in the past year and is now “the most well-armed militant force in West Africa and among the most powerful in the world,” The Washington Post newspaper reports. Regional and Western officials reported in June that the terrorist organization has up to 6,000 fighters.
“They’re creating a proto-state that stretches like a belt from western Mali all the way to the borderlands of Benin,” said ACLED researcher Héni Nsaibia, as reported by the Post. “It is substantial — even exponential — expansion.”
The kidnappings, coupled with the fuel embargo in Bamako, are putting newly focused pressure on the Malian government, which is dealing with food shortages, school and hospital shutdowns, and a security crisis. The terrorists have attacked and burned fuel tankers coming from Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.
Rida Lyammouri, a researcher at the Policy Center for the New South, told AFP that such ransoms allow JNIM to “maintain its current level of military engagement, including the economic blockade on Bamako, for a prolonged period.”
“Such a haul will only serve to boost the JNIM’s ambitions to expand and establish a lasting presence in the Sahel and the coastal states of Africa.”