Victims held for six months in captivity at the hands of jihadi kidnappers in Nigeria detailed on Friday the harrowing conditions they were kept in after being liberated in what Nigerian officials are calling the largest rescue operation in the country's history.Nigerian forces rescued at least 308 victims from captivity in the past week, with the bulk of the victims coming from two distinct groups.163 of the victims were taken from the Woro community in Nigeria's Kwara State in a Feb.
3 raid that saw their jihadi kidnappers kill an additional 160 people in the Woro village.The victims told the Associated Press that they believed they had been taken as punishment for refusing to accept and acquiesce to the religious preachings of the jihadis.One woman, Hauwa Saliu, told the outlet that her captors constantly asked the victims if they had accepted jihad yet.NIGERIAN PASTOR HIGHLIGHTED BY TRUMP SAYS HE’S NEXT AFTER MILITIA KILLS HIS RELATIVESHauwa Saliu, a woman who is among those rescued by Nigerian forces this week, about six months after being abducted by militants in February, speaks to journalist as she receives medical attention at a hospital in Ilorin, Nigeria, Friday, Aug.7, 2026.
(AP Photo/Abubakar Khadijat)"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," she told the outlet.Another victim, Amira Saliu, described the conditions in which the women and children were being kept, explaining that they were held in a forest near a river, and forced to put out fires and hide when they heard helicopters nearby.FREED HOSTAGE ROM BRASLAVSKI DETAILS ABUSE, STARVATION DURING 738 DAYS IN GAZA CAPTIVITYSaliu, a nurse, also explained how she had to help 10 women give birth with no medical equipment or sanitary gloves."I had no choice but to use my bare hands," she told the outlet.Women who were rescued after being held in a forest after they were abducted from the Woro community by gunmen in February r...