2025 Abduction of Eva Gretzmacher, Agadez, Niger

Overview

On 11 January 2025, Eva Gretzmacher, a 73-year-old Austrian development worker, was attacked in her home in the Fada district of Agadez, Niger, by a group of armed gunmen who forced her into a four-by-four vehicle at gunpoint and drove away. She had been living and working in Agadez as part of long-running development and humanitarian activities in the region. Her abduction was one of at least four separate kidnapping incidents targeting foreign nationals across the Sahel in January 2025 alone, part of what researchers at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) described as an unprecedented surge in foreign hostage-taking by the Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP), the group's first confirmed kidnappings of foreign nationals since 2018.

On 29 April 2025, ISSP publicly claimed responsibility for Gretzmacher's abduction, releasing a photograph depicting her in captivity and describing her as being held in reportedly good health. As of mid-2026, her whereabouts and the status of any negotiations for her release had not been publicly disclosed by Austrian or Nigerien authorities.

Attribution

The Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP), formerly known as Islamic State – Greater Sahara (ISGS) before being formally recognised as an autonomous Islamic State branch in March 2022, claimed the abduction. Analysts at ACLED noted that ISSP's ability to seize a foreign national from a home inside Agadez town itself — rather than in a remote rural area — and to hold her for months before claiming the operation, indicated a marked expansion in the group's operational reach and sophistication in a part of Niger previously considered comparatively insulated from Sahelian jihadist violence.

Context

Gretzmacher's abduction formed part of a broader pattern in which ISSP kidnapped at least six foreign nationals in the first month of 2025 alone, a scale unprecedented in the group's history. Researchers linked the surge to ISSP's expanding transnational logistical networks, including growing ties with criminal smuggling groups across the Sahel that facilitate the movement of hostages into remote areas of Mali, as well as significant counter-terrorism capacity gaps affecting the military-led governments of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso following a wave of coups in the region.

International Response

The Austrian government confirmed it was seeking information on Gretzmacher's welfare and location through diplomatic channels, though it did not disclose details of any ransom negotiations, consistent with common government practice in hostage cases. The incident, along with the similar abduction of Swiss aid worker Claudia Abbt three months later in the same district of Agadez, prompted renewed warnings from Western governments and humanitarian coordination bodies about the deteriorating security environment for foreign aid workers operating in Niger's Agadez region.