Nigeria’s military says it has rescued 360 people, including women and children, from a terrorist enclave hidden deep within the rugged Mandara Mountains in the country’s northeast, describing the operation as one of the largest hostage rescue missions in the region in recent years.
The Joint Task Force (North East) Operation HADIN KAI (OPHK) announced the rescue in a statement on Sunday, with Acting Media Information Officer Lieutenant Colonel Haruna Sani saying the captives had been held by members of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS), a faction of the armed group commonly known as Boko Haram.
According to the military, the rescued victims—comprising men, women and children—were freed during a carefully coordinated operation targeting the insurgents’ stronghold in the mountainous terrain of Gwoza Local Government Area in Borno State.
Sani described the mission as one of the most significant hostage rescue operations carried out in Nigeria’s North East in recent times, underscoring the military’s continued offensive against armed groups operating in the region.
