Christoph Staewen (14 July 1926 – 24 April 2002) was a German medical doctor, specialist of psychiatry, neurology and psychotherapy.
[1] In 1964, amongst the people of Yoruba, he began to study in Western Nigeria the conditions of uprooting of these people caused by the increasing confrontation with the technical civilisation of the "First World", and provoking more and more reactions of anxiety and deformations of behaviour.
Later he worked for more than six years as a in Niger, Congo-Brazzaville and Chad, where he continued his research on African psychology.
The other captives were two French citizens, Françoise Claustre, an archeologist, and Marc Combe, a development worker.
Staewen, whose wife Elfriede was killed in the attack of capture, was released after payments of West German officials on 11 June 1974.