{"id":22985,"date":"2026-01-28T05:56:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/nigeria-rescues-11-kidnap-victims-in-late-night-operation\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:53","slug":"nigeria-rescues-11-kidnap-victims-in-late-night-operation","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigeria-rescues-11-kidnap-victims-in-late-night-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria rescues 11 kidnap victims in late-night operation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Nigerian army said on Tuesday it had rescued 11 kidnapping victims during a late-night operation along the Kaduna\u2013Abuja highway, thwarting an attempt by armed militants to move the captives through a forested area under the cover of darkness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The five men, three women and three children had been held for 92 days after being abducted from the Gada Mallam Maman community in Kaduna state in October.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Troops from forward operating base Doka detected the group on January 26 using long-range surveillance equipment, the army said in a statement. Soldiers moved in after spotting the kidnappers escorting their victims along a bush track.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Kidnappings for ransom have become a major security challenge in northwestern and central Nigeria, including along the Kaduna\u2013Abuja expressway, a major transport corridor linking the commercial capital with the federal capital territory.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria&#8217;s security situation is under scrutiny from United States President Donald Trump who launched a Christmas Day airstrike over what he says is persecution of Christians. Last week, armed bandits kidnapped more than 160 worshippers from two churches in Kaduna.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22986,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-22985","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Nigerian army said on Tuesday it had rescued 11 kidnapping victims","published_date":"2026-01-28 07:32:07","news_description":"The Nigerian army said on Tuesday it had rescued 11 kidnapping victims","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26100,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22985\/revisions\/26100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}