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This report examines the growing threat of kidnapping for ransom in Chad and its border regions and offers practical recommendations.

Kidnapping for ransom (KFR) is an escalating threat in Chad and its neighbouring states in the Central Africa region. While concentrated in the southern border regions near Cameroon and the Central African Republic (CAR), there are KFR hotspots across the country with subtle variations per region. What began as a tactic of sporadic rural banditry in the 1990s has evolved into a structured, transnational criminal economy, increasingly tied to cycles of armed conflict, crossborder insecurity and institutional fragility.

Building on prior indications from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) that the expanding scale and scope of KFR in Chad could spark a regional security crisis, this thematic report aims to provide evidence-based analysis of the dynamics of KFR in Chad and its borderlands, offering actionable recommendations for prevention and response.