by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - In a rare victory against Islamic terrorists in northern Nigeria, the country’s military forces on Tuesday were able to rescue 350 hostages taken captive by the Boko Haram jihadist organization over a period of years, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Nigeria has been plagued by jihadist terror organizations including Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, and radicalized Fulani herdsmen who have entrenched themselves across swathes of the northern part of the country since 2009. These groups use mass murder (in the tens of thousands), torture, rape, displacement, and kidnapping as weapons to establish an Islamic caliphate and destroy communities that do not conform to their ideology.
The 209 children, 135 women, and six men rescued on Tuesday were found at a Boko Haram stronghold in Sambisa Forest, Borno state. Many of them had been held captive for years, ICC reports.
“I always wanted to escape but couldn’t because of the children,” survivor Hajara Umara told the Associated Press. “If they caught you trying to escape, they would torture you and imprison you indefinitely.”
Notably, the majority of those rescued this week are children. Boko Haram has kidnapped at least 1,400 students from Nigerian schools since it first abduced 276 schoolgirls from the predominantly Christian village of Chibok in Borno state, in 2014.