Security forces in Nigeria have rescued 163 more kidnapped Nigerians, predominantly women and children, who spent six months enduring jihadi captivity. The freed individuals were among a total of more than 300 kidnap victims recently rescued by security forces in an operation described by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu as the “largest rescue operation ever” undertaken on a single day.
### Medical Handover and Captivity Ordeal
According to reports from ctvnews.ca, the rescued captives were handed over to officials in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara state, on Friday for routine medical checks and medical attention while they anticipated reuniting with their families.
At the hospital where they received care, many of the freed captives appeared emaciated, with several laying on the floor and barely able to stand. Others bore physical injuries and emotional scars from their prolonged ordeal.
Mary Ishaya, a 44-year-old survivor, described enduring days without food and being asked alongside others to bury fellow hostages who died in captivity. “I still cannot find the right words to describe what has happened to us. We saw death and suffering,” Ishaya said, noting she had never touched or buried a dead body before.
The victims had been abducted on Feb. 3 when jihadi militants stormed the village of Woro, an attack that ctvnews.ca reports left over 160 others dead. The attack was one of the deadliest in Nigeria in recent years, highlighting how militants are moving south through Africa’s most populous nation from their activities in the north.
### Forest Hideouts and Forced Indoctrination
Survivors described conditions inside the dense, expansive forests of the Kainji Lake National Park where they were held. Captives recounted falling sick, being beaten by the rain, and being told to hide whenever Nigerian military helicopters flew overhead.
Amira Saliu, a nurse among those freed, told The Associated Press that she helped about 10 pregnant women deliver their babies in the forests. “I had no choice but to use my bare hands,” Saliu said.
Locals in Woro stated they suspected the killings and kidnapping were a punishment for resisting the preachings of the jihadis. Hauwa Saliu, whose husband was killed during the February attack, recalled that captors constantly asked abductees if they had accepted those preachings. Saliu, who refused to accept them, said that while they prayed to God to help us go back home, “it never really crossed our minds that we were going to go back home.”
### Wider Rescue and Security Response
Local authorities did not say how the captives were rescued from the forest. The victims rescued this week included the group from Woro alongside 145 other victims who had been kidnapped, mostly from neighboring Niger state.
Mass kidnappings targeting villages and schoolchildren have come to define Nigeria’s security issues, as gangs compete for territory and control of natural resources in areas where security forces remain overstretched. President Tinubu promised to intensify operations against armed gangs.
Meanwhile, the United States is providing military support to Nigeria under an agreement it says aims to protect Nigerian Christians, though that assistance remains largely restricted to logistics and intelligence-gathering at the heart of the violence in the north.
