Targeted killings and professional hitmen are in high demand in South Africa, according to a Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) report, which examines how violence has festered as a monetizable commodity over the past two decades.

Assassinations have long been part of criminal and often even political economies in east and the south of Africa, but according to a new report by a Swiss-based independent civil-society organization, they are decreasing now after a long period of rising rates in Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa.