“It’s Been a Violent Year for Chinese Workers in Africa”, 19 August 2020

Aside from everything else going on, 2020 is proving to be a rather violent year for Chinese workers in Africa, particularly in Nigeria. Today’s news that yet another Chinese national was taken hostage by kidnappers who raided a construction site in Niger state follows a steady stream of similar reports over the past 4-6 months.

Just three days ago, four Chinese were freed after they had been kidnapped last month at a quarry site in Cross River state. Back in June, two Chinese managers at a mine in Ebonyi state were taken. And In February, attackers abducted a 65-year old Chinese man. He was later killed in Ogun state after his family failed to pay a ransom.

… pirates raided a cargo ship in the Gulf of Guinea and took 5 Chinese nationals hostage. At present, their fate is still unknown. Meanwhile, a separate group of four Chinese sailors taken hostage off the coast of Gabon was freed in January.

And the situation isn’t much better in the remote mining areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo where Chinese nationals have been targeted and murdered…

As far as I know, there aren’t any studies measuring the frequency of attacks on Chinese personnel in Africa, so this is admittedly an anecdotal observation. But it does seem that the number of attacks against Chinese nationals, in particular, is on the rise…