Rescued Kwara Nurse Recounts Barehanded Deliveries and Ordeal During Six-Month Captivity

A nurse rescued after nearly six months in terrorist captivity has shared a harrowing account of her ordeal, revealing how she delivered 10 babies with her bare hands while enduring extreme conditions alongside dozens of other hostages.

Amirah Salihu, the daughter of the traditional chief of the Woro community in Kwara State, was among 176 women and children abducted during a February 3 attack on the Woro and Nuku communities in the Kaiama Local Government Area. The hostages regained their freedom earlier this week following military operations.

Speaking in an interview after her release, Salihu described severe deprivation in the forest camps, where captives slept in open riverbeds, exposed to heavy rains without adequate food or medical supplies.

“I helped like 10 women for the delivery, without gloves. I used my hands to help them,” Salihu recalled. “At last, when they got to know I was a nurse, they wanted to keep me… but I said no. I want to come back.”

Salihu explained that the attackers targeted her village because her father had actively resisted their presence and sought military protection for the community. During the raid, insurgents killed two of her brothers before marching the captives into the forest. She noted that while the group subjected victims to extreme hardship, no cases of sexual assault occurred during their time in captivity.

According to state authorities, 13 children died during the six-month captivity, while 12 hostages remain unaccounted for.

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq received the freed victims in Ilorin, expressing gratitude to security agencies and the federal government for their rescue efforts. Several rescued individuals, including mothers who gave birth in captivity, are currently receiving medical care at a state general hospital.