Militant groups increase kidnappings in N. Africa

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By NBC News wire servicesMilitant groups in North Africa have benefited from lapses in security across the region as countries transition to more democratic government – increasingly funding themselves through kidnapping, a senior U.S. Treasury official said.

The U.S. estimates militant organizations received $120 million in ransoms over the past decade, including to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in recent years, said David Cohen, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld Kidnapping for ransom was an "urgent threat," particularly in the Sahel, a belt of land spanning nearly a dozen of the world's poorest nations on the Sahara's southern rim, Cohen told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday.




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