Kidnapped American Missionary Freed from Niger

A Christian missionary has been released into U.S. custody after spending nine months in the custody of “Jihadist terrorists,” according to President Donald Trump. 

The president took to Truth Social on Friday to announce the rescue of Kevin Rideout from the country of Niger in West Africa: “I am proud to announce that Kevin Rideout, a wonderful Christian Missionary, is back in United States Custody,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Kevin, the United States of America looks forward to welcoming you HOME. Glad to have helped!”

Rideout, a pilot for the Christian evangelical organization Serving in Mission (SIM), was kidnapped on October 21, 2025 from his home in Niamey, Niger. Rideout is 49 years old and has been working for the ministry for 20 years. 

“I was kidnapped from outside my home in Niger, taken off of the back of my motorcycle through the night to north of Niger to Mali, and I was held by the Islamic State as a prisoner in Mali,” Rideout said in a video posted by DRM News on Monday. 

SIM shared their relief at Rideout’s release. “We are grateful to confirm that our good friend and brother in Christ, Kevin Rideout, has been released after over nine months in captivity,” SIM International posted in a statement. Over the weekend, Rideout reunited with his wife, Krista, in an undisclosed location.

“We are so thankful to God that Kevin Rideout has been released from captivity, and thankful to the Trump administration for working hard to resolve this situation. Kevin’s ordeal of captivity played out in a vast, sparsely-populated region of Africa overlapping the southern border of the Sahara Desert known as the Sahel — an area that is currently unstable and conflict-prone as Islamic groups seek to expand south from North Africa toward Christian populations in Southern Africa,” Travis Weber, vice president for Policy and Government Affairs at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand.

Reuters reported that the country of Libya played a role in Rideout’s release. According to one source, Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar’s forces carried out a military operation in Mali to free Rideout.

“Thank you to General Sam Hafta and the Libyan army and special forces and everybody who is involved in securing my release and involved in arranging all the logistics for me to be released and brought to Libya safely,” Rideout said in the video. 

Senator Ted Budd (R.-N.C.) took to X to share his support of Rideout. “His courage to share the gospel is a reminder that Christians still face persecution around the world. That’s why I’m working to hold religious persecutors accountable,” Budd posted. 

Rideout’s liberation comes after the freeing of Chinese Pastor Ezra Jin from a detention center in China last month. Mingri was released after Trump advocated for him in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Mingri, the pastor of an underground church in China, was taken into custody in October 2025, after an apparent crackdown on religious freedom.

“This president has done more on religious freedom than any president in modern era. He’s raised it, he believes in it, he’s done the domestic commission on it. …Praise be to God on all of it,” underscored former Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback during an appearance on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” 

Weber lamented the rise in violence against Christians all across Africa at the hands of armed Islamic groups. “This is also the context in which radical Islamic groups are waging violent campaigns of expansion targeting Christians and peaceful Muslims in Nigeria — a situation the Trump administration has begun to address by labeling Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern for religious freedom violations. Nigeria, Niger, and other countries in this region need to enforce law and order across their entire territories and ensure justice for the victims of these attacks by bringing accountability and punishing the perpetrators,” he insisted.

“While we are thankful Kevin is coming home, may we continue to pray for Christian communities in these conflict zones, and for peace, justice, law and order to be brought to this difficult region in which he was serving,” he concluded.