Boko Haram terrorist group has released more than 400 people it kidnapped earlier this year from a village in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, a senator and a local youth leader said on Sunday.

Kidnappings have become a key tactic of Boko Haram terrorists in their 17-year-old violence against the Nigerian state, mostly concentrated in the northeast.

Samaila Kaigama, president of the Borno South Youth Alliance (BOSYA), said his group "has secured the release of all the 416 women and children abducted from Ngoshe."

Ngoshe lies less than 10 kilometres from the Cameroonian border in the Gwoza hills, a Boko Haram stronghold, and has come under repeated attack.

The victims were released on Saturday, Kaigama told journalists.

Mohammed Ali Ndume, a senator from Borno, confirmed the release to AFP.

Kidnapping crisis

It was not immediately clear how the victims' release was secured and Ndume said he didn’t know the circumstances of the release.

BOSYA, which had established communication channels to act as an intermediary between the abductors and affected families, did not provide details.

Nigeria's various armed groups, including terrorists, "bandit" gangs and separatists, have created a kidnapping crisis across the country that raised some $1.66 million in ransom payments between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy.

Authorities often deny paying ransoms, though analysts say it is common practice, by both the government and victims' families.