Nigerian security forces rescue 300 kidnapping victims

The Nigerian government announced the release of 308 kidnapping victims on Wednesday, including 163 taken from a single village earlier this year. (AFP/File)

• “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu warmly welcomes the successful rescue of 308 Nigerian citizens,” Onanuga said
• He added that 163 were from Woro “and 145 from Niger State“

ABUJA: The Nigerian government announced the release of more than 300 kidnapping victims on Wednesday, including 163 taken from a single village in the west of the country earlier this year.
Kidnapping for ransom by criminal groups, militants and non-ideological gangs known as bandits has become a major crisis in Nigeria, especially areas with little state presence in the north and center of the country.
In February, suspected militants attacked the village of Woro, Kwara state, near the border with Benin, killing more than 150 people and kidnapping an unknown number.
“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.
He added that 163 were from Woro “and 145 from Niger State.”
The victims were rescued from a location in the Kainji Lake National Park Forest.
Sprawling, often sparsely governed forests and reserves across the country have turned into hideouts for Nigerian criminal groups.
It was “the largest rescue operation ever carried out” in a single day,Onanuga said.
Suspected militants went on a rampage in Woro earlier this year after they had sent a letter to the village announcing their intention to preach, only to have no one show up.
They burned houses and killed upwards of 165 people and kidnapped an unknown number of people, residents told AFP at the time, though local authorities gave a lower toll.
Media reports had put the number of those kidnapped at 176 — though as recently as Friday the police in Kwara state said that number was unsubstantiated.
Large parts of the village had been reduced to piles of ash and rubble in the attack.
Tinubu condemned the “beastly attack,” deploying an army battalion to the troubled region and blaming Islamist movement Boko Haram — though the name is often used generically for militant groups in Nigeria.
A few months before, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) claimed its first attack on Nigerian soil in the state, near Woro.