Islamic State (IS) has received as much as US$45 million in ransom payments in the past year.  It’s one of a number of fundamentalist terrorist groups that have turned to kidnapping as their main sources of revenue.

The United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee has heard that terrorist groups netted an estimated $120 Million between 2004 and 2012.  US investigator Yotsna Lalji says IS along with al Qaeda and its affiliates made kidnapping the main “tactic for generating revenue”.   She pointed to an October 2012 recording in which al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri incites militants worldwide to kidnap Westerners.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates from Yemen, received $20 million in ransom payments between 2011 and 2013.  Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in North Africa, received $75 million over the past four years.

Lalji said that African extremist groups Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Shabab in Somalia also “have collected millions of dollars over the past years”.  And the Abu Sayyaf militant group in the Philippines has received about $1.5 million in ransom.