Nigerian forces rescued at least 308 women and children held for roughly six months by jihadi kidnappers, an operation officials are calling the largest hostage rescue in Nigeria's history, carried out as U.S. military strikes continue to hammer ISIS-linked militants across the region.

Survivors spoke to reporters Friday at a hospital in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, where 46 of the freed captives were receiving medical treatment. Their accounts described starvation, forced labor, births without medical supplies, and the burial of fellow captives who did not survive. Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq held a news conference at the same hospital, visibly shaken by what he saw.

The rescue, carried out over the past week by Nigerian forces, recovered victims taken from at least two distinct groups. Of the 308 freed, 163 were seized during a February 3 raid on the Woro community in Kwara State, the same attack that left 160 villagers dead. The identity of the second group of victims has not been publicly detailed. How Nigerian forces located the captives, held in a forest near a river, remains unclear, and no specific military or police units have been named in connection with the operation.

Survivors describe months of starvation and forced burials

The testimony from rescued women painted a grim picture of captivity. Hauwa Saliu, one of the freed hostages, told the Associated Press that captors repeatedly asked whether victims had accepted jihad. She said the hostages clung to faith but held little real hope of release.

"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."

Mary Ishaya, 44, described conditions in which captives routinely went days without food and were forced to bury those who died in the forest camp.

"I still cannot find the right words to describe what has happened to us. We saw death and suffering."

Amira Saliu, a nurse among the hostages, said she delivered 10 babies during the six months of captivity, without medical equipment, sanitary gloves, or any supplies at all. She described being forced to put out fires in the camp and to hide whenever helicopters flew overhead.

"I had no choice but to use my bare hands."

The victims said they believed they were taken as punishment for refusing to accept the religious preachings of the jihadis. The specific militant group responsible for the Woro raid has not been formally named by Nigerian officials in available reporting, though the broader region has been plagued by ISIS-affiliated insurgents for years.

Governor AbdulRasaq: 'It's just kids... children and women'

At his news conference, Governor AbdulRasaq acknowledged that authorities were still assessing the full scope of the crisis. His remarks focused on the composition of the freed hostages, overwhelmingly women and children, and the difficulty of processing what had happened.

"This is indeed, indeed a very sad situation. We've not yet come to terms with it. We're still assessing the situation. As you can see, it's just kids... children and women that are here today. It's truly a shame that this has happened."

The governor confirmed that 46 victims were being treated at the Ilorin hospital. The status and location of the remaining rescued hostages, more than 260 people, have not been publicly addressed. No details about arrests or charges against captured kidnappers have been released.

U.S. strikes against ISIS in Nigeria preceded the rescue by months

The rescue operation took place against the backdrop of an escalating joint U.S.-Nigerian military campaign against Islamic State-linked groups in northern Nigeria. On Christmas Day, President Trump authorized precision missile strikes on ISIS-affiliated militants in the region, coordinating directly with Nigeria's government. The administration cited the need to protect the country's Christians, who make up roughly 45 percent of Nigeria's population.

That campaign continued into the spring. In May, a coordinated joint U.S.-Nigerian military operation reportedly killed Abu Bakr al-Mainuki, described as a senior Islamic State leader. His death has not been independently confirmed beyond official claims.

The Department of War posted an image on X showing a U.S. strike against ISIS in Nigeria, though no further details about that specific strike, including its date or target, were provided. The sustained military pressure on ISIS networks in the region may have contributed to the conditions that made the rescue possible, though Nigerian officials have not drawn that connection publicly.

Follow-up operations in the region have continued. U.S. and Nigerian forces launched additional airstrikes against ISIS fighters in the months following the initial Christmas Day campaign, maintaining pressure on militant networks operating across northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin.

Open questions dwarf the official account

For all the weight of the rescue itself, the gaps in the public record are substantial. Nigerian authorities have not identified which military or security units carried out the operation, nor explained how they located hostages held deep in a forest for half a year. The second group of victims, those not from the Woro community, has not been identified by origin, and the total number of people originally kidnapped across all groups remains unclear.

Whether any captives died during the six months of captivity is implied by survivor testimony, Mary Ishaya described burying fellow hostages, but no official death toll from captivity has been released. And the jihadi group behind the Woro raid has not been formally named, even as the broader U.S.-Nigerian campaign has focused squarely on ISIS-affiliated organizations.

Christians in Nigeria's north have faced relentless violence from Islamist militants for more than a decade. The February 3 attack on Woro, 160 killed, 163 taken, was among the worst single incidents in that long campaign of terror. That it took six months and what officials describe as the largest rescue operation in Nigerian history to recover the survivors speaks to both the scale of the crisis and the limits of the response.

Three hundred and eight women and children are free today because someone finally came for them. The question for Nigeria, and for every government that claims to fight jihadist terror, is why it took so long, and what happens to the communities left unprotected until the next raid.