Kevin Rideout, an American Christian missionary who spent more than nine months in captivity after being abducted in Niger, has been freed and reunited with his wife.
Rideout, 50, was kidnapped by three armed men outside his home in Niamey, Niger, on Oct. 21, 2025. He had worked in Niger for 19 years as a missionary and pilot for Serving in Mission International, a Christian missionary organization based in Charlotte, N.C.
The organization announced on Aug. 14 that Rideout had been released and was in good health in the care of U.S. officials. The FBI later said it had worked with the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell and other U.S. agencies to secure his release.
The circumstances of his release have not been fully disclosed. Rideout said in a video released after his freedom that he had been held by the Islamic State in Mali, though U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed which group held him at the end of his captivity.
U.S. President Donald Trump shared photos of Rideout with his wife, Krista Rideout, on Friday and later said the couple would visit the White House. Sebastian Gorka, the president’s deputy assistant and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, said Rideout expressed gratitude to Trump.
“He sounds incredibly good and wouldn’t stop saying how grateful he is to President Trump,” Gorka said. “He even shared that he kept singing in his head the song ‘Proud to Be an American’ when he knew he would be coming home.”
