Nigeria's military has freed at least 360 people held captive by Boko Haram in a remote mountain stronghold in the north-eastern state of Borno, in what officials have described as one of the most significant hostage rescue operations in the region in recent years. The former captives — including women and children — were abducted in early March from communities around Ngoshe, a mainly Muslim village near the border with Cameroon, reportedly as residents were breaking their Ramadan fast. Two infants died from exhaustion during the ordeal, the military confirmed, while the remaining survivors were evacuated to safe locations for medical care and humanitarian support.

The army says the operation targeted Boko Haram's hideout in the Mandara mountains — a rugged range straddling the Nigeria-Cameroon border that has long served as a refuge for the militant group — and was carried out under cover of darkness following weeks of intelligence-led planning. Military spokesperson Lt-Col Haruna Sani described the assault as having caught the Islamist militants by surprise. However, a local civil society group, the Borno South Youth Initiative, offered a different account, claiming it had mediated an unconditional release through direct contact with the militants and putting the number freed at 416. The dispute over how the captives came to be freed has not been publicly resolved.

Boko Haram launched its violent campaign to impose Islamic rule across northern Nigeria in 2009. At its peak the group controlled vast swathes of territory; it no longer does, but it and its splinter factions — including the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which is affiliated with the global Islamic State network — remain active and deadly. The insurgency has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions over more than a decade. Earlier this year, Nigeria also announced that a joint operation with a small contingent of US forces deployed to assist with training and intelligence had killed 175 ISWAP fighters.

Mass kidnapping for ransom has become a broader and deepening problem across Nigeria, with armed groups targeting schools, churches, mosques and remote villages. Analysts note that ransom payments — by families, intermediaries or, in some cases, state authorities — have helped sustain the abductions, even though paying ransoms is illegal. Boko Haram's 2014 abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok, in Borno state, brought global attention to the crisis; around 90 of those girls remain missing to this day.

The rescue comes as President Bola Tinubu's government faces mounting criticism over its handling of Nigeria's overlapping security crises, which include the Islamist insurgency in the north-east, widespread kidnapping gangs, intercommunal clashes over land and separatist unrest in other parts of the country. Daniel Bwala, a special adviser to the president, said the government commended the troops while acknowledging the tragedy of the two infants who did not survive. Authorities say efforts are also under way to account for captives believed to have fled across the border into Cameroon during the episode.