Missionary pilot kidnapped in Niger is free

An American missionary pilot has been rescued from Niger nine months after three armed men took him hostage outside his home in Niamey, the nation’s capital.

Kevin Rideout, 50, is in good health and headed back to the United States, SIM International, an evangelical organization based in North Carolina, announced on Friday.

“We are grateful to confirm that our good friend and brother in Christ, Kevin Rideout, has been released,” SIM said. “Please join us in giving thanks to the Lord for this incredibly good news!”

The missionary pilot’s return was also celebrated by President Donald Trump. He called Rideout a “wonderful Christian Missionary” and said he was “glad to have helped.”

The New York Times reports that the White House considered Rideout’s rescue a high priority. The publication broke the news of the missionary’s release on Friday, citing two anonymous officials. Rideout was in the custody of the FBI, the officials said, and agents had shared proof-of-life photos.

Rideout has worked in Niger for 19 years, alongside his brother, Ian, his wife, Krista, and their four children. He flew support missions around West Africa, providing crucial supplies to other missionaries and aid workers who were running hospitals and orphanages, helping refugees, teaching literacy, drilling wells and restoring forests.

The circumstances around Rideout’s Oct. 2025 kidnapping remain unclear.

Group responsible unknown

Niger’s democratically elected government was overthrown in 2023 and the nation, one of the poorest in the world, was taken over by a military junta.

The junta expelled French troops and ended a cooperative agreement with the American military. The government allied itself with Russian mercenaries and in June 2025 announced plans to nationalize the nation’s uranium mines. Niger is the leading supplier of the radioactive element that fuels Europe’s nuclear power plants.

At the same time, the nation has been troubled by armed groups of terrorists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State. Jihadist groups frequently turn to kidnapping foreign nationals to raise funds.

No organization claimed responsibility for holding Rideout hostage. The officials who spoke to The New York Times suggested he may have been transferred between groups.

At the time of his kidnapping, a local security source said the only information available came from witnesses who said they saw three armed men in a Toyota Corolla. A later report said a security guard who was with Rideout at the time of his capture was beat up and left behind.

Radio France Internationale noted Rideout was seized in a high-security area, near an upscale hotel in the city center, just a few hundred meters from the presidential palace.

No foreigners had been abducted from that area since 2011, when al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb grabbed two young French men from a restaurant. Those two hostages later died in a failed rescue attempt.

Trump, in his statement Friday, blamed “Jihadi terrorists,” but did not provide any specifics.

No details about release

The U.S. government has not offered any details around Rideout’s rescue. It remains unclear if there was a military operation or if someone paid a ransom.

FBI Director Kash Patel said only that agents “worked tirelessly” with the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense to bring Rideout home.

In Trump’s first term, the United States launched a ground operation in Niger after jihadist militants kidnapped American Jeff Woodke, who worked with Youth with a Mission’s relief and development program.

Four American soldiers died in the effort. Woodke was finally released after more than six years in captivity.

“It was hell,” the missionary said in 2023. “The last year I was there, I was asking them to kill me.”

Paying ransoms, however, is controversial. Most experts oppose it, arguing a lucrative payday will inspire more kidnappers to take more people hostage. They argue that payment may seem like a quick solution, but it makes the problem worse for everyone else.

Not all experts agree, though. Several security experts told Christianity Today in 2022 that the no-payment policy sounds good in theory but doesn’t work in practice. The decision is often not made by organizations, but family members. They are concerned about their loved ones, not the hard-to-quantify impact a cash transfer might have on an international security crisis.

“Kidnappers can be very vicious and actually carry out what they say they will do, which is kill the victims,” David Shedd, a former CIA agent and security consultant who worked with missionary organizations, told the magazine. “One is always wishful and hopeful that it would never happen to you, but when it does, all of a sudden it’s very real.”

Details about Rideout’s release have not been made public, however. SIM International said he was en route to the U.S. on Friday, to rejoin his family in safety.

“This is an answer to prayer!” evangelist Franklin Graham wrote on Facebook. “I know his wife and four children are so grateful and excited to finally have him back.”

Daniel Silliman is senior reporter/editor at The Roys Report. He began his two decades in journalism covering crime in Atlanta and has since led major investigations into abuse and misconduct in Christian contexts. Daniel and his wife live in Johnson City, Tennessee.