Lagos – Nigerian security forces Monday handed over more than 400 women and children rescued from Boko Haram jihadists to the state authorities at a temporary camp in northeastern Borno state.
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.
The Nigerian military said about 360 victims were rescued over the weekend.
Another 82 were freed about “two to three weeks ago”, Borno State governor Babagana Umara Zulum said on Monday at a displaced persons camp in Pulka, about 130 km (80 miles) from the state capital, Maiduguri.
The victims were taken from Ngoshe in Borno state’s Gwoza local government area when the jihadist group raided it earlier this year.
The town lies less than 10 kilometres from the Cameroonian border in the Gwoza hills, a Boko Haram stronghold, and has come under repeated attack.
“What we saw this morning is about 360 released two days ago. But some two to three weeks ago, we also received other persons, totalling about 434,” Zulum said.
The militants had demanded millions of naira in ransom for the captives. Authorities in Nigeria deny paying ransoms. Analysts, however, say it is common practice, by both the government and victims’ families.
Many of the women and children sat on the ground in the camp when the governor visited on Monday.
“We thank the Almighty Allah for the rescue,” one of the freed women, Hassana Buba, 43, told AFP. “We are very grateful and also celebrating.”
Nigeria’s various armed groups, including jihadists, so-called “bandit” gangs and separatists, have created a kidnapping crisis across the country.
Kidnappings 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.
Nigeria’s jihadist insurgency, which has spawned multiple armed groups, has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions since it began in 2009 with a Boko Haram uprising.
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Source: AFP
