Abductions of Eva Gretzmacher and Claudia Abbt

Abductions of Eva Gretzmacher and Claudia Abbt

Part of the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel
Duration	11 January 2025 – present
Location	Niger and Mali
Perpetrator	Islamic State – Sahel Province
Missing	Eva Gretzmacher Claudia Abbt

Armed men who were hired by the Islamic State – Sahel Province, abducted Eva Gretzmacher on 11 January and Claudia Abbt on 13 April 2025, from their homes in the city of Agadez, Niger.

There were also three other incidents that were possibly linked to the abductions of Gretzmacher and Abby’s. firstly, on 1 February 2025 two Nigerien National Guard soldiers were killed and two CNPC workers were abducted in an ambush near the Agadem Complex. On 24 April, 12 soldiers of the National Guard of Niger were killed near Sakoira. On 25 April, five Indian electricians and a Nigerien worker were abducted in an attack on a worksite near the Kandadji Dam.

Background

Eva Gretzmacher was born on 29 April 1951 in Vienna, Austria. In 1997, she moved to the city of Agadez while working for the Spanish non-profit AMANAY Association. Gretzmacher was the victim of several kidnapping threats in 2021.

Claudia Maria Abbt was born around 1958 in Beirut, Lebanon, and later moved to Switzerland. She had a business in Tamanrasset, Algeria, in the tourism industry, but she would later move to Agadez with her son Younes. Abbt is married to a Nigerien national. Abbt also established Tellit, an organization to help artisans.

Abductions

In the evening of 11 January 2025, 73-year-old development worker Eva Gretzmacher was attacked in her home in the Fada district of Agadez by a group of gunmen who forced her into a 4x4 truck at gunpoint. On 13 April at around 7:35 p.m., 67-year-old Swiss community worker Claudia Abbt was abducted by gunmen at her home in Agadez's Dagmanett 2 district in Agadez. The two women were taken to various locations in the southern area of the Gao Region of Mali, specifically in and around Asongo and Ménaka, and around the area of Adéramboukane.

Shortly after the abductions, Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb publicly denied having abducted Gretzmacher and Abbt.

On 29 April, the Islamic State – Sahel Province claimed responsibility for the abductions by publishing a photo of Gretzmacher, reportedly in good health. It is believed that the ISSP didn't abduct Gretzmacher and Abbt themselves but rather hired subcontractors who then handed the two women over to the ISSP.

Other incidents

Abduction of Navarro Giane Gilbert

On 14 January, a Spanish tourist Navarro Giane Gilbert was abducted at the Assekrem plateau in the Ahaggar National Park by up to five Algerian and Malian rebels who hoped to sell Gilbert to ISSP. Gilbert was freed by the Azawad Liberation Front days later on 21 January in the Ménaka Region. Gilbert’s abduction was conducted in a similar fashion to Gretzmacher’s and Abbt’s abductions.

Dori-Téra highway attack

On 18 January, four Moroccans truck drivers along with a Togolese and Burkinabe who were delivering electrical equipment from Casablanca, Morocco to Niamey, Niger. On the road between Dori, Burkina Faso and Téra, Niger several armed men believed to be ISSP militants abducted the four. The six men were freed in Niger a few days later on 21 January.

Agadem Complex attack

On 1 February, a truck carrying two National Guard soldiers who were escorting two China National Petroleum Corporation workers were ambushed by suspected ISSP militants near the Agadem Complex Conventional Oil Field in the Agadem Rift Basin near Agadez. In the attack the two soldiers were killed while the two Chinese workers were injured and then abducted.

Sakoira and Kandadji Dam attacks

On 24 April, 12 Nigerien soldiers who were conducting a military operation north of Sakoira in Tillabéri were ambushed and killed by suspected ISSP militants. Two men were arrested the day after for their involvement in the attack after a military campaign in the region.

On 25 April, a group of local and foreign Indian workers who were working on power lines near the Kandadji Dam. Shortly after their lunch break, a group of gunmen on motorcycles attacked their worksite and abducted six of the men, several were able to get away, no one is know to have been killed in the attack. Five of the abducted workers were Indians who were working for the Kalpataru Projects International Limited, the other worker was a local Nigerien worker. The five Indian workers, who were all from the Giridih district of Jharkhand, were identified as Sanjay Mahto, Faljit Mahto, Rajkumar “Raju” Mahto and Chandrika Mahto of Dondlo and Uttam Mahto of Mundro, the Nigerien worker was identified as Adam who was reportedly released shortly afterwards. The five men are believed to be somewhere in the Tillabéri region.

On 2 July the captors contacted the families and friends of the captives warning them. One of the text messages which was sent to Ajay Kumar whose childhood best friend Rajkumar Mahto was among the abducted, the messages read, “You have 7 days to act or your relatives, all the 5 persons, will be history,” they added “What is needed is known to you.” They also asked Kumar to contact a negotiator at the Nigerian nonprofit organization Kalthum Foundation for Peace based in Maiduguri. The month prior a middleman for the captors sent Kumar a two text messages which read “Hello… I believe you are related to Rajukumar who was abducted in Niger Republic,” “He, with 4 others. Unfortunately, they were abducted by ISWAP fighters. They reached out to me to pass a message to you. Ur braza gave them ur numba.”

Dosso attack

On 15 July, gunmen ambushed a security team guarding a worksite for an electrical line around 63 miles north of Niamey in the Dosso Region, five locals including a Nigerien soldier, and two Indian electricians Ganesh Karmali (39) from Karipani village and Krishna Gupta were killed in the attack, and Ranjit Singh of Chakka Kundi was abducted.