Kevin Rideout, the American missionary pilot abducted last October in Niger’s capital, Niamey, has been freed and is now in U.S. custody, the New York Times reported late Thursday, citing two American officials.
Rideout is traveling back to the United States, according to the Times. The report said he appeared to be in good health, based on proof-of-life images shared with U.S. officials within the past 48 hours.
The U.S. State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours.
Reuters reported in October that a missionary pilot with the evangelical organization Serving in Mission had been seized by three unidentified men while on his way to the airport, citing an unnamed diplomat. Rideout was not identified by name in that initial report.
After the abduction, the kidnappers were said to have moved toward Niger’s western Tillaberi region, an area where Islamist militant groups affiliated with Islamic State and al Qaeda operate.
Niger, along with neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, has spent more than a decade confronting jihadist insurgencies that have destabilized large parts of the central Sahel.
Days after Rideout’s kidnapping, the United States issued a travel warning for Niger, urging Americans not to travel there because of crime, civil unrest, terrorism, health risks and the threat of kidnapping.
Reuters later reported in March that Washington was seeking to restart intelligence-gathering efforts in neighboring Mali, in part to help locate the kidnapped missionary, who was then believed to be held in Mali by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, the local al Qaeda affiliate.
According to the New York Times, details of how and where Rideout was released remained unclear.
It was also unclear which group was holding Rideout at the end of his captivity, as he may have been moved recently, the Times added.
