(FILES) Schoolchildren leave a minibus as they arrive at the local Governor's office in Minna on December 8, 2025. Around a hundred schoolchildren who were abducted last month by armed men from a Catholic school have arrived at the government headquarters in Minna, the capital of Niger State in central-northern Nigeria, as observed by AFP journalists on Monday. However, the fate of the 165 others abducted with them remains unknown. The students, mostly aged between 10 and 17, arrived in five white buses escorted by about ten military and armored vehicles and were received by Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago. (Photo by Light Oriye Tamunotonye / AFP)
Hundreds of people kidnapped earlier this year by the jihadist group Boko Haram in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state have been freed, according to the military and local sources.
Since 2009, a jihadist insurgency by Boko Haram and its rival, the Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap), has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions in the northeast of Africa’s most populous nation.
Mass kidnappings, often followed by ransom demands, are a common tactic used by Islamist militants. Samaila Kaigama, president of the Borno South Youth Alliance (BOSYA), said he secured the release of 416 women and children abducted from Ngoshe.
“They were freed on Saturday,” he told journalists. Mohammed Ali Ndume, a senator from Borno, confirmed the release.
However, in a separate statement later that day, the army reported 360 people freed, not by Boko Haram but through a military operation “using intelligence.” The military said it gathered intelligence and conducted “psychological operations” to sow “distrust among insurgents” before beginning the assault phase.
The victims had been held “in harsh conditions after being kidnapped from several communities, particularly around the Ngoshe axis,” the army statement said.
“Unfortunately, two infants died from exhaustion due to the long captivity and harsh conditions,” Daniel Bwala, spokesperson for President Bola Tinubu, said on social media, also citing the figure of 360 freed.
Two infants dead
The village of Ngoshe lies less than 10 kilometers from the Cameroon border in the Gwoza hills, a Boko Haram stronghold, and has faced repeated attacks from Islamist fighters.
The youth organization leader said he did not know the circumstances of the release. BOSYA, which had set up communication channels between captors and families, provided no details.
Ransom payments are common practice
Authorities deny paying ransoms, although analysts say it is a widespread practice, both by the government and victims’ families.
Some $1.66 million was paid in ransoms from July 2024 to June 2025 to various armed groups in Nigeria — jihadists, “bandits,” and separatists — according to a report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consulting firm.
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