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Nigerian military forces liberated more than 300 captives held by militant groups during what state officials are characterizing as the nation’s most significant rescue effort on record. The operation, completed over the span of a week, resulted in the freedom of at least 308 individuals who had endured months of confinement under jihadi control.
Among those freed were 163 victims extracted from the Woro community in Kwara State, abducted during a February 3 raid that also claimed approximately 160 civilian lives in the village. The hostages attributed their capture to their refusal to embrace the religious ideology their captors attempted to impose, according to accounts shared with international media outlets.
Hauwa Saliu, one of the rescued women, recounted how militants repeatedly demanded whether captives had accepted jihad. “We prayed to God to help us go back home, but it never really crossed our minds that we were going to go back home,” she explained, describing the despair that consumed the group during their ordeal.
Conditions in captivity proved severe, with detainees held in forest encampments near waterways where they were forced to conceal themselves when military aircraft approached. Amira Saliu, a nurse among the rescued, described assisting in childbirth without medical supplies or protective equipment, using only her bare hands to deliver 10 infants during confinement.
Mary Ishaya, 44, detailed prolonged food shortages and the grim responsibility of burying deceased captives. “I still cannot find the right words to describe what has happened to us. We saw death and suffering,” Ishaya stated when discussing the experience.
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq confirmed that 46 rescued individuals required hospitalization for treatment of injuries and malnutrition. He characterized the situation as deeply troubling, noting the overwhelming majority of survivors were children and women.
The rescue operation underscores persistent conflict between Nigeria’s northern Islamic militant networks and the nation’s Christian community, which comprises approximately 45 percent of the population. In December, President Donald Trump authorized precision military strikes against Islamic State-affiliated organizations in northern Nigeria in coordination with the Nigerian government, citing protection of Christian populations as justification.
The United States conducted additional coordinated military operations in May that reportedly killed senior Islamic State commander Abu Bakr al-Mainuk, representing an escalation in counter-terrorism efforts in the region.
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