Nigeria’s government says more than 300 kidnapping victims have been rescued, including 163 people abducted from a single village in the country’s west earlier this year.
Ransom kidnappings carried out by criminal groups, jihadists and non-ideological gangs known as bandits have grown into a severe national crisis, particularly across northern and central regions where government authority is limited.
In February, suspected jihadists attacked Woro in Kwara state, close to the Benin border. More than 150 people were killed and roughly the same number were abducted, according to accounts from the area.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu warmly welcomes the successful rescue of 308 Nigerian citizens who were abducted in different attacks in Niger and Kwara states,” presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga said.
The victims were found in a location inside the forested Kainji Lake National Park.
Across Nigeria, vast forests and reserves that are often thinly governed have become shelters for criminal groups seeking to evade security forces.
Onanuga described the effort as “the largest rescue operation ever carried out” in a single day. The operation involved the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, the military, the Department of State Services intelligence agency and the police.
Ash and rubble
The suspected jihadists descended on Woro earlier this year after sending villagers a letter announcing plans to preach there. When no one appeared, residents said, the attackers returned in apparent retaliation.
They torched homes, killed more than 165 people and abducted an unknown number of residents, according to accounts given to AFP at the time. Local authorities reported a lower death toll.
Media reports placed the number of abducted people at 176, but Kwara state police said as recently as Friday that the figure had not been substantiated.
Much of the village was left buried beneath ash and rubble after the assault.
President Tinubu condemned the violence as a “beastly attack”, sent an army battalion to the troubled area and blamed the Islamist movement Boko Haram, although the name is frequently used as a broad label for jihadist groups operating in Nigeria.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Months earlier, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) claimed responsibility for its first attack on Nigerian soil in the state, near Woro.
Kidnapping has become a profitable enterprise in Nigeria.
Ransom payments linked to abductions totaled about $1.66 million between July 2024 and June 2025, according to figures compiled by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy.
Over the weekend, gunmen abducted at least 52 people, including children, during an assault on a village and a military base in Zamfara state, in northwestern Nigeria.
