Nigerian troops killed at least 95 members of an armed criminal gang in a shootout and airstrikes earlier this week, according to a situation report shared with the UN and seen by AFP on Thursday.
Armed gangs known as "bandits" have taken root across Nigeria's rural hinterlands amid poverty and government neglect. They raid, loot, burn villages, exact taxes, and conduct kidnappings for ransom.
On Tuesday, Nigerian air and ground troops "foiled an attempted bandit attack, launching air strikes and shootouts" in the northwestern state of Niger, according to the report, which was produced by a private conflict monitor.
It added that "at least 95 bandits" were killed in the clash, which occurred near the villages of Warari and Ragada in the Rijau local government area.
The Nigerian military put out a statement about the clash Wednesday, saying that forces "engaged terrorists in a firefight, neutralizing several."
One soldier was killed, it said.
Tuesday's attack follows a slew of battles where the Nigerian military – which has in the past has been quick to publicize and sometimes exaggerate its gains – has kept relatively mum on apparent victories where scores of bandits were killed.
An intelligence source told AFP the military was changing tack after realizing publicizing their gains was keeping jihadists and bandits abreast of their operations.
The army declined to comment.
Nigeria's myriad bandit gangs maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, and Niger states, in unrest that evolved from clashes between herders and farmers over land and resources into a broader conflict across the sparsely governed countryside.
Since 2011, as arms trafficking increased and the wider Sahel fell into turmoil, organized armed gangs formed, with cattle rustling and kidnapping becoming huge moneymakers in the largely impoverished northwest.
Groups also levy taxes on farmers and artisanal miners.
Aminu Abubakar / AFP
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