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.
In February, suspected terrorists 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.
‘Largest rescue operation’
The victims were rescued from a location in the Kainji Lake National Park Forest.
It was “the largest rescue operation ever carried out” in a single day, Onanuga said.
Suspected terrorists 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.
President Tinubu condemned the “beastly attack”, deploying an army battalion to the troubled region and attributing the attacks to Boko Haram terrorists.
