At least 163 Nigerian captives, consisting mostly of women and children, have shared harrowing accounts of the fear and suffering they endured during six months of jihadi captivity. These individuals were among a larger group of over 300 kidnap victims successfully rescued by Nigerian forces this week. On Friday, the group was handed over to authorities in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara state, for medical attention and routine checks as they anticipated returning home to reunite with their families.
The survivors' ordeal began on February 3, when jihadi militants stormed the village of Woro, an attack that resulted in the deaths of over 160 people. Mary Ishaya, a 44-year-old survivor, recalled the trauma of living without food and being forced to bury fellow hostages who died while in captivity. Having never encountered a dead body before, Ishaya struggled to process the experience, stating, “I still cannot find the right words to describe what has happened to us. We saw death and suffering.”
At the hospital where they received care, many of the freed captives appeared emaciated, with some lying on the floor, barely able to stand. Many survivors bore physical injuries and deep emotional scars. Some of the women were informed for the first time that their husbands had been among those killed during the initial February attack. Survivors described a life of constant terror, noting that they had largely given up hope of returning home. They recounted instances of illness, being beaten by the rain, and being forced to hide whenever Nigerian military helicopters flew over the forest hideouts where they were held.
Amira Saliu, a nurse who was among those abducted, described the dire conditions in the forest, where she had to assist approximately 10 pregnant women in delivering their babies. “I had no choice but to use my bare hands,” she said. Hauwa Saliu, a 30-year-old whose husband was killed in the attack, recalled how the captors constantly pressured the abductees to accept their preachings. Saliu, who refused to accept the ideology, noted that while they prayed for a return home, it never truly felt like a possibility. Locals in Woro suspect the massacre and kidnappings were a form of punishment for the community’s resistance to the militants' preachings.
The February attack was one of the deadliest in Nigeria in recent years, illustrating how militants previously focused on the north are moving south through Africa’s most populous nation. In these areas, gangs compete for territory and control of natural resources, often outnumbering the country’s overstretched security forces. While the U.S. provides military support to Nigeria under an agreement aimed at protecting Christians, much of this aid is restricted to logistics and intelligence-gathering in the north. Mass kidnappings, including those targeting schoolchildren, have become a defining security issue in the country.
The 163 victims from Woro were rescued alongside 145 other individuals, mostly from neighboring Niger state. Local authorities have not disclosed the specific details of how the captives were rescued from the dense, expansive forest of the Kainji Lake National Park. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu described the operation as the “largest rescue operation ever” undertaken on a single day and pledged to intensify efforts against armed gangs. To address the poor welfare of the country's underpaid and overstretched security forces, the government has recently announced pay raises and mass recruitment for the military. However, Sekinat Ojeniyi, a senior analyst at the global risk consultancy Africa Practice, argued that the government must prioritize proactive intelligence and prevention rather than simply responding to attacks after they occur. “It is time for us to recheck how much our security apparatus does to prevent” such incidents, Ojeniyi said.
“We prayed to God to help us go back home, but it never really crossed our minds that we were going to go back home,” the 30-year-old said.
Mass kidnappings have come to define Nigeria's security issues, with schoolchildren also targeted.
