Officials say 24 militants ‘neutralised’ across northeast Borno state and 30 armed men killed in northwest Katsina. Nigeria’s army and security agencies have killed scores of armed men in isolated operations in the country’s northwest and northeast, officials said.
Security forces killed at least 30 gunmen following armed attacks in the restive northwestern region, Nasir Mua’zu, the commissioner for internal affairs in Katsina state, said on Thursday.
He asserted “criminals” were making incursions into three villages on Tuesday when they were gunned down by government troops. A joint military and police operation was mounted on Wednesday after hundreds of well-equipped men attacked several villages, Mua’zu said in a statement.
Three policemen, two soldiers and a civilian were also killed, he said. Our brave security men effectively pushed back the attackers … Thirty of the criminals were neutralised by combined air strikes as they sought to flee,” Mua’zu said.
“We are working day and night with the federal security agencies to secure the welfare of all citizens. Meanwhile, in Nigeria’s northeast, the military “neutralised” 24 armed combatants in days of combined operations, an army statement reported on Thursday.
The operations were carried out in restive Borno state and surrounding regions, said the statement by Reuben Kovangiya, an army spokesman for the military operations.
The 24 insurgent neutralisation through close air support indicates the unwavering resolve, synergy, and collective efforts of OPHK troops to put terrorists on the back foot, thus setting up a favourable environment for socioeconomic pursuits to flourish in the North East sub-region,” Kovangiya added.
The North East Nigeria has been under attack since the 2000s from armed gangs and even groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP. The Boko Haram rebellion has claimed about 35,000 civilians killed since 2009, and over two million have been displaced, said the United Nations.
In the northwest and central areas, meanwhile, banditry and criminal gangs are prevalent. Katsina is in an area which has for years been plagued by gangs who make lethal attacks and kidnappings, and set houses ablaze after they have burgled them.
The gangs have camps in forests bordering Zamfara, Katsina, and Kaduna states in the northwest, and Niger in the country’s centre, and have conducted large-scale kidnappings of students from schools.
In the last month, state authorities inked a peace agreement with a dozen bandit commanders in hopes of achieving lasting relief before planting season. Nigerian authorities’ assertions of lethal raids against members of armed gangs have previously been challenged.
