Bamako (Somalia Today) —The United Arab Emirates has paid a multi-million-dollar ransom to an al-Qaeda affiliate in Mali to free a kidnapped Emirati prince, pumping fresh cash and leverage into a jihadist group already tightening a blockade around Bamako, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Western officials cited by the paper said Abu Dhabi flew more than $20 million in cash — possibly closer to $23 million — to fighters from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), al-Qaeda’s Sahel branch.
The money secured the release of Sheikh Ahmed bin Maktoum bin Juma al Maktoum, a 78-year-old member of Dubai’s ruling family.
The deal also freed dozens of Islamist prisoners from Malian jails. That gives the insurgents both money and fresh manpower as they try to squeeze fuel and goods into the capital and test the strength of the military junta.
Ransom windfall
Al Maktoum was abducted in September during a raid on his farm south of Bamako. Video released by JNIM showed fighters storming a hangar where he kept small aircraft and hang gliders. An Iranian and another Emirati national were taken at the same time, the Journal reported.
After weeks of back-channel talks, emissaries for Dubai’s ruling family met Malian officials and go-betweens at a Bamako hotel to hammer out terms, according to the same account.
One intermediary was Tuareg leader Ahmed ag Bibi, a former fighter in an Islamist group under Iyad ag Ghali. The veteran jihadist now leads JNIM.
JNIM freed the prince and his fellow hostages in late October after cash taken from Emirati vaults was flown into Mali, the report said. A Gulfstream private jet then carried Al Maktoum back to Dubai. Malian civilians held by JNIM also walked free under the broader agreement.
Other security briefings suggest the ransom may have been even larger.
A separate Reuters report and a situation note by risk-analysis firm Rane put the total closer to $50 million and say weapons and ammunition also changed hands. The UAE has not publicly addressed those claims.
“The staggering ransom paid by Abu Dhabi to JNIM comes at the worst possible time,” Justyna Gudzowska, executive director of watchdog group The Sentry, told the Journal. She called it a massive boost to the group’s “extremist ambitions on the continent.”
Spokespeople for the UAE, Mali, and the US State Department did not comment to the paper, the report added.
Sahel at tipping point
The money lands just as Mali edges closer to becoming the first country ruled outright by an al-Qaeda franchise.
JNIM fighters have been blocking fuel convoys into Bamako since September, driving up prices and forcing rationing. The blockade also exposes the capital’s dependence on a few vulnerable supply routes, according to an African Union alert.
A separate Wall Street Journal analysis warned in October that al-Qaeda “is on the brink of taking over a country”. It described how JNIM’s blockade has brought fuel shortages, school closures, and deep anxiety in Bamako.
Mali’s conflict began with a 2012 uprising and northern rebellion. Since then, jihadist violence has spread into Burkina Faso, Niger, and parts of coastal West Africa, killing tens of thousands and driving millions from their homes, according to the International Crisis Group’s Mali briefings.
French and European forces have pulled out after successive coups in Mali. The junta brought in Russian mercenaries instead, but their presence has done little to reverse jihadist gains. Allegations of abuses have further alienated civilians.
Meanwhile, JNIM has pushed south into Benin, the Ivory Coast, and Togo. In October, the group claimed its first action in Nigeria.
Jihadist factions are also deepening their kidnap operations. They treat foreign workers, missionaries, and local elites as bargaining chips in what analysts describe as a “kidnapping economy”.
Kidnapping economy
Mali is now recording a surge in hostage-taking. JNIM has kidnapped at least 22 foreigners over the past six months alone, Radio France Internationale reported, citing Malian security sources in a piece on record abductions of foreigners.
The pattern is regional. In neighbouring Niger, armed men abducted American missionary pilot Kevin Rideout in October from a neighbourhood near the presidential palace in Niamey, according to US officials quoted in several Christian and local outlets.
Days later, Washington issued a “do not travel” advisory for Niger, warning US citizens about the risk of kidnapping, terrorism, and crime after the abduction.
Rights groups and diplomats say ransom payouts at the scale now attributed to the UAE risk supercharging that business model. Each successful deal encourages new kidnappings and gives jihadist commanders more cash to buy loyalty, weapons, fuel, and intelligence.
UAE’s blurred role
The hostage deal also underlines the UAE’s increasingly blurred role as both a close US security partner and a power willing to cut its own arrangements, even when they clash with Western counterterrorism policy.
The Gulf state hosts US warplanes at Al Dhafra air base near Abu Dhabi and signed the Abraham Accords normalising ties with Israel, a key plank of Washington’s Middle East strategy.
At the same time, UN experts have scrutinised its role in Sudan’s war. A UN panel report seen by Reuters said mortar rounds originally exported from Bulgaria to the UAE were later found in a convoy of Rapid Support Forces fighters in Darfur.
Sudan has since filed a case at the World Court accusing Abu Dhabi of violating the Genocide Convention by arming the militia.
The UAE denies arming the RSF and says there is no substantiated evidence that it supplied weapons. It instead stresses its humanitarian aid to Sudan and the wider region.
For now, Abu Dhabi has not publicly commented on the Mali ransom reports.
Western officials and rights advocates say the silence does little to answer a stark question: how one of Washington’s closest partners ended up delivering a significant cash injection — and the release of hardened prisoners — to an al-Qaeda affiliate that is openly trying to strangle a West African capital.
Analysts warn that if Bamako falls or the junta enters talks from a position of deep weakness, the ransom for a single prince will look less like a discrete rescue and more like a turning point.
In their view, it would mark a moment when outside money helped fund an al-Qaeda push to rule a state of 25 million people.
