Nigeria: Hundreds of kidnapped women, children freed from Boko Haram jihadists

Several hundred people kidnapped by Boko Haram earlier this year from a village in the northeastern state of Borno were freed over the weekend, a senator and local youth leader said Sunday.

Kidnappings, often for ransom, have become a key tactic of Boko Haram jihadists in their 17-year-old insurgency against the Nigerian state, mostly concentrated in the northeast.

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Samaila Kaigama, president of the Borno South Youth Alliance (BOSYA), said his group "has secured the release of all the 416 women and children abducted from Ngoshe".

They were released Saturday, Kaigama told journalists.

Mohammed Ali Ndume, a senator from Borno, confirmed the release to AFP.

It was not immediately clear how the victims' release was secured.

But separately, the military said it executed an "intelligence-led rescue operation" freeing 360 people.

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The victims had been held by Boko Haram militants "under harsh conditions after being abducted from several communities, particularly within the Ngoshe axis", it said.

"Sadly, two infants died due to exhaustion from prolonged captivity and harsh terrain," Daniel Bwala, a spokesman for President Bola Tinubu, said on social media.

The military statement said troops had gathered intelligence and used "psychological operations" to sow "mistrust within the insurgent ranks" before "the commencement of the assault phase".

The militants had demanded millions of naira in ransom for the Ngoshe captives.

Authorities in Nigeria deny paying ransoms, though analysts say it is common practice, by both the government and victims' families.

Nigeria's various armed groups, including jihadists, "bandit" gangs and separatists, have created a kidnapping crisis across the country that raised some $1.66 million in ransom payments between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy.

Ngoshe lies less than 10 kilometres from the Cameroonian border in the Gwoza hills, a Boko Haram stronghold, and has come under repeated attack.

Since erupting in 2009 with Boko Haram's uprising, Nigeria's jihadist insurgency, which has spawned multiple armed groups, has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)