The Nigerian army has killed 300 bandits in the northwestern state of Zamfara. According to local residents, the local militia's guards also participated in the battle that lasted throughout the night and the next morning.
Nigerian soldiers killed more than 300 members of kidnapping and herding gangs in northwestern Africa's Zamfara state this week, a government official said.
Zamfara Information Commissioner Mahmud Muhammad Dantawasa said government forces targeted militants in the Gummi area in a two-day operation that “led to the killing of over 300 terrorists”.
Jihadist groups and cattle thieves are terrorizing communities in northern and central Nigeria, where they raid farmers' lands, steal livestock and kidnap people for ransom. They also exact taxes from farmers who want access to their land through auction, writes The Guardian.
Security analysts say jihadists and criminal groups have cooperated in recent years and say their interests coincide. Criminal gangs have proliferated in Nigeria's impoverished rural areas as jihadists continue to wage a 17-year insurgency in the country's north. Both took advantage of the weakness of the central government, The Guardian emphasized.
Gummi residents said soldiers and local vigilantes launched an operation against about 1,000 bandits who stole livestock on Wednesday night. “Soldiers and vigilantes killed more than 300 bandits in a battle that lasted throughout the night and into the next morning,” Abubakar Muhammad told AFP.
Two weeks ago, the army tried to attack the bandits' camp, but locals said the bandits were outnumbered and forced to retreat.
The Zamfara state government said the operation was a significant breakthrough in the fight to restore order in the region, The Guardian noted.
Nigeria faces several security crises related to the Islamist insurgency of Boko Haram (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) and its rival Islamic State West Africa Province (a terrorist organization banned in Russia).
In recent months, the Nigerian government has cooperated with the United States to destroy jihadists, which has sent hundreds of soldiers to the country to support the fight against Islamists. In a joint US-Nigeria operation in May, the deputy commander of the Islamic State (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) and about 200 fighters were killed in a village in northeastern Nigeria.
Nigeria is also struggling with widespread lawlessness and looting caused by poverty. Jihadists and bandits have long used mass kidnappings of elementary school students for ransom and other demands.
On Saturday, the army said it had suffered “casualties” rescuing more than 40 kidnapped children who authorities said had been held by jihadists. The kidnapping was shocking because it happened in the southwest of the country, which had previously been considered relatively safe, The Guardian wrote.