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Nigerian soldiers killed more than ۳۰۰ members of kidnapping and cattle bandit gangs in the north-western state of Zamfara this week, according to a government official.
Nigerian government troops targeted the gangs in Gummi district in a two-day operation that “led to the elimination of more than ۳۰۰ terrorists,” Zamfara’s information commissioner, Mahmud Muhammad Dantawasa, said in a statement.
Gangs made up of cattle rustlers and jihadists have terrorised communities in northern and central Nigeria, where they raid farmers’ land, steal cattle and kidnap people for ransom. They also impose levies on farmers who want to access their own land in protection rackets.
Jihadists and criminal gangs have been cooperating in recent years, according to security analysts, who say their mutual interests align. Criminal gangs have become widespread in impoverished rural Nigeria, while jihadists continue to wage a ۱۷-year insurgency in the north of the country. Both are invested in a weak central government.
Local residents of Gummi said soldiers and local vigilantes had launched a campaign on Wednesday night against about ۱,۰۰۰ bandits who had stolen livestock.
“The soldiers and the vigilantes killed more than ۳۰۰ bandits in the fight which raged all night and the following morning,” Abubakar Muhammad told Agency France–Presse.
Troops had tried to launch an assault on the bandits’ camp two weeks ago but were outnumbered and were forced to withdraw, residents said.
The Zamfara government said the operation had been a significant breakthrough in its fight to restore order to the state.
Nigeria faces a number of security crises, with an Islamist insurgency by Boko Haram and its rival, the Islamic State West Africa Province.
The government has killed jihadists in recent months in partnership with the US, which has deployed hundreds of troops to the country to support its fight against Islamists. A joint US-Nigeria operation in May killed the second-in-command of Islamic State and about ۲۰۰ fighters in a remote village in north-east Nigeria.
Nigeria also struggles with general lawlessness and banditry, fuelled by poverty. Jihadists and bandits have long used mass kidnappings of elementary-school children to extract ransom and pursue other demands.
The army said on Saturday that it had suffered casualties during the rescue of more than ۴۰ kidnapped schoolchildren who were taken by what authorities said were jihadists. It came as a shock because it happened in the south-west of the country, which was previously thought to be relatively safe.
