Mass hostage release by Boko Haram in Nigeria’s Borno state

Several hundred people who were abducted by Boko Haram earlier this year from a village in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, gained their freedom over the weekend, according to a senator and a local youth leader.

Kidnappings, often for ransom, have become a key tactic of the Boko Haram jihadists in their 17-year insurgency against the Nigerian state, which is concentrated mainly in the northeast.

Samaila Kaigama, president of the Borno South Youth Alliance (BOSYA), stated that his group secured the release of 416 women and children who had been taken from Ngoshe.

They were freed on Saturday, Mr. Kaigama told journalists.

Mohammed Ali Ndume, a senator from Borno State, confirmed the release.

Details of how the release was achieved remain unclear.

The victims had been held by Boko Haram fighters in harsh conditions after being seized from multiple communities, especially around Ngoshe.

“Unfortunately, two infants died from exhaustion due to prolonged captivity and difficult terrain,” said Daniel Bwala, spokesperson for President Bola Tinubu, on social media.

The army reported that troops gathered intelligence and conducted psychological operations to sow distrust among the insurgents before launching an assault phase.

The militants had demanded millions of naira in ransom for the Ngoshe hostages.

Nigerian authorities deny paying ransoms, although analysts say this is a common practice, both by the government and by victims’ families.

Various armed groups in Nigeria — including jihadists, bandit gangs, and separatists — have fueled a kidnapping crisis across the country that yielded about $1.66 million in ransoms between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consulting firm.

Ngoshe lies less than 10 kilometers from the Cameroonian border, in the Gwoza hills, a Boko Haram stronghold, and has been repeatedly attacked.

Since the Boko Haram uprising began in 2009, the jihadist insurgency in Nigeria has spawned multiple armed groups, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions.