MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Boko Haram has freed more than 400 people kidnapped earlier this year from a village in the northeastern state of Borno, a senator and a local youth leader said Sunday.
Kidnappings, often for ransom, have become a key tactic of Boko Haram militants in their 17-year-old insurgency against the Nigerian state, mostly concentrated in the northeast.
Samaila Kaigama, president of the Borno South Youth Alliance (BOSYA), said his group “has secured the release of all the 416 women and children abducted from Ngoshe.”
They were released Saturday, Kaigama told journalists.
Mohammed Ali Ndume, a senator from Borno, confirmed the release to AFP.
