American missionary pilot Kevin Rideout, who was kidnapped in Niger last October, has been released and is in U.S. hands, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing two U.S. officials.
Rideout is en route to the United States and was reported to be in good health, based on proof-of-life images provided to American officials within the past 48 hours. The U.S. State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Rideout, a pilot for the evangelical missionary agency Serving in Mission, was reportedly seized by three unidentified men in Niamey as he was traveling to the airport, according to an October report by Reuters. At the time, Reuters cited an unnamed diplomat but did not identify Rideout by name.
The kidnappers were reported to have headed toward the western Tillaberi region of Niger, an area where Islamist militants with ties to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda are active.
Niger, along with its neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, has been contending with jihadist insurgencies for over a decade. Days after Rideout's kidnapping, the U.S. issued a travel warning for Niger, advising its citizens against travel to the country due to risks of crime, unrest, terrorism, health issues, and kidnapping.
In March, Reuters reported that the U.S. was seeking to resume intelligence gathering in neighboring Mali, partly motivated by efforts to locate the kidnapped missionary. At that time, Rideout was believed to be held in Mali by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an affiliate of al-Qaeda.
Details regarding the circumstances and location of Rideout's release remain unclear, as do the specifics of which group held him at the end of his captivity, according to The New York Times. It is possible he was moved recently.