An American missionary pilot who was captured in Niger last fall has reportedly been released and is now en route back to the United States.
Kevin Rideout, a 50-year-old pilot working with an evangelical group, was kidnapped on October 21 by three unidentified men outside his home in the capital Niamey, just blocks away from the presidential palace, Christianity Today reports.
The armed kidnappers were then seen heading toward the Tillaberi region, where militants linked to ISIS and al-Qaeda were known to be active.
The following day, the US Embassy in Niamey issued a security alert warning Americans of an increased risk of kidnapping.
A spokesperson from the State Department told CBS News: ‘We are seeing efforts from across the government to support the recovery and safe return of this US citizen.’
Rideout’s release has since become a priority for the Trump White House and the military’s Africa Command, who were successfully able to bring him back into American custody on Thursday, two officials familiar with the matter told The New York Times.
Details about how exactly Rideout was released remain unclear. It is also unclear which terrorist or criminal group held the missionary at the end of his captivity, as he may have recently been moved, according to one official.
But he appeared to be in good health based on proof-of-life images that were provided to American officials over the past 48 hours, one of the officials said.
Kevin Rideout, a 50-year-old pilot, has reportedly been released from captivity in Niger
Rideout had been working in Niger as a Christian missionary for 19 years.
He also worked as a pilot for Serving in Mission, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based organization that bills itself as a ‘global mission family serving in 70 countries’ with a focus on outreach to communities with few Christians.
Experts have suggested he was likely taken by the Islamic State Sahel Province or criminal groups connected to the terrorist organization.
In recent years, the group and its rivals have grown in strength in parts of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso due to a security vacuum caused by junta leaders kicking out Western military assistance and closing the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali in 2023.
That same year, Niger’s general Abdourahamane Tiani ousted President Mohamed Bazoum in a military coup. Tiani then vowed to restore security and ordered foreign troops, including the US military, to vacate the landlocked country.
In the aftermath, the military government started to view foreign missionaries as spies and barred them from entering villages and remote areas, Olu Sunday, president and CEO of Royal Missionary Outreach International in Nigeria and Niger said.
Moussa Djibo, a Nigerian missionary with Calvary Ministries in Niamey, also noted that in the mission school he attended, teachers told students that dying in the mission field was a very real probability.
Rideout’s abduction also came as thousands of Christians and Muslims were killed in land disputes, sectarian violence and terrorism, which Christian activists and Republican lawmakers have viewed as persecution of Christians.
Rideout was kidnapped on October 21 by three unidentified men outside his home in the capital Niamey
Rideout had been working in Niger as a Christian missionary for 19 years
Analysts, however, say there is no clear evidence to suggest that Christians are attacked more frequently than any other religious groups in the country.
Officials in neighboring Nigeria have since allowed US forces to fly surveillance missions from its bases, in part to locate Rideout, as American soldiers helped the country with training and surveillance in its fight against jihadists.
In March, the State Department’s top Africa official, Nick Checker, also made a series of trips to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in an effort to share intelligence and get American troops in the air searching for Rideout, according to the Africa Report.
The Trump administration even reportedly lifted sanctions on three Malian officials linked to Russian security forces in April in an effort to rekindle information sharing with the Alliance of Sahel States.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and the State Department for comment.
