Human trafficking has become such a common element of war that its appearance when a new conflict breaks out no longer shocks as it should. Horrific, yes. But like death and destruction, unfortunately expected.
From the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and al-Shabaab in Somalia to ISIS in Syria and Iraq, combatants have deliberately used human trafficking to supply themselves with manpower and money. They have forced captives to work, children to fight, and families to pay ransom. They have also used human trafficking to reward their forces and terrorise communities, through practices like sexual slavery, forced marriage, and systematic rape of women and girls.
Not only rebels and warlords are guilty of trafficking during war. Manas Kongpan, a Thai army general, was convicted in 2017 for his role in trafficking Rohingya refugees. He was initially sentenced to 27 years, later increased to 82 years, for crimes including human trafficking and accepting bribes. NGOs document evidence of human trafficking in conflict, for example in December 2024, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing the abduction and sexual enslavement of women and girls by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias in South Kordofan. Even those sent to protect the vulnerable have been implicated. Whistleblowers exposed human trafficking by UN staff and contractors in Bosnia in the mid-1990s, and peacekeeping forces in Somalia were documented to have sexually exploited local women between 2013-14. Beyond those fighting, organised crime groups also thrive, using the chaos and vulnerability created by war as an opportunity for trafficking.
