After years of limiting its kidnap operations to Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and occasionally Algeria and southern Tunisia, it would seem that al-Qaeda, through its Maghreb branch al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is currently attempting to expand its profitable “kidnapping trade” to other countries to locate new sources of funding.
According to Algerian authorities, kidnapping operations targeting Westerners in the African Sahel earned al-Qaeda an estimated 50 million euros ($66 million).
Abdel Razak Bara, advisor to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, said in a speech at a United Nations meeting on terrorism financing in 2010 that terrorist groups use the money to acquire weapons and advanced logistical equipment.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2012/03/30/feature-02
