{"id":48503,"date":"2026-08-16T10:42:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=48503"},"modified":"2026-08-16T10:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:42:33","slug":"american-missionary-in-niger-released-after-10-months-of-captivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=48503","title":{"rendered":"American missionary in Niger released after 10 months of captivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2023\/08\/18\/United_States_Niger_Drone_Bases_71422_s1440x1080.jpg?d091f0ac6a77bac1b6357990e6e1f57b58a17971\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/kevin-rideout\/\">Kevin Rideout<\/a>, an American missionary kidnapped in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/niger\/\">Niger<\/a> last October, has been released after more than 10 months of detention in the North African country, his organization announced Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rideout \u201cis in good health in the care of US officials,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/serving-in-mission-international\/\">Serving In Mission International<\/a>, a Christian organization, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKrista and the rest of Kevin\u2019s family are profoundly grateful for the prayers offered on their behalf by people around the world throughout his captivity, and in particular for the deep level of prayer and support offered by our SIM family,\u201d the mission said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rideout, an airplane pilot for the organization who lived in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/niger\/\">Niger<\/a> for 19 years, was kidnapped near his home in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/niger\/\">Niger\u2019s<\/a> capital, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/niamey\/\">Niamey<\/a>, on Oct. 21, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump celebrated his return on Truth Social, saying that the \u201cwonderful Christian Missionary\u201d is back in U.S. custody.<\/p>\n<p>The president also slammed \u201cJihadi terrorists\u201d for kidnapping Mr. Rideout, saying that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/niger\/\">Niger<\/a> region is the \u201cepicenter of Islamist terrorism, where there have been more deadly attacks in the past year than anywhere else on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKevin, the United States of America looks forward to welcoming you HOME. Glad to have helped!\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>No information has been released by the government about the group that abducted Mr. Rideout, but reports indicate it was connected to Islamic terror groups.<\/p>\n<p>Since a military junta overthrew <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/niger\/\">Niger\u2019s<\/a> democratically elected government in 2023, terrorist groups linked to al Qaeda and ISIS remain active, carrying out attacks in border zones and near the capital.<\/p>\n<p>Reuters reported in March that Mr. Rideout was believed to be held in neighboring Mali by JNIM, an al Qaeda affiliate.<\/p>\n<p>A day after Mr. Rideout was kidnapped, the U.S. Embassy in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/niamey\/\">Niamey<\/a> issued a security alert warning that American citizens \u201cremain at a heightened risk of kidnapping throughout <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/niger\/\">Niger<\/a>, including in the capital city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FBI Director Kash Patel said in a Friday post that Mr. Rideout was \u201cabducted by terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FBI and our brilliant partners in the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell have worked tirelessly since last October when Kevin was abducted and today is a culmination of that work and the work of this administration,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<section class=\"author-contact-section\">\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kevin Rideout, an American missionary kidnapped in Niger last October, has been released after more than 10 months of detention in the North African country, his organization announced Friday. Mr. Rideout \u201cis in good health in the care of US officials,\u201d Serving In Mission International, a Christian organization, said in a statement. \u201cKrista and the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2023\/08\/18\/United_States_Niger_Drone_Bases_71422_c0-336-4032-2688_s1200x700.jpg?b9045e74783b6319fce841b792fcd0258cbfc91e","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}