Nigerian forces kill over 100 gang members in weekend raid

Armed "bandits" have long terrorised northwest and central Nigeria, raiding villages, kidnapping, and looting homes

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The Nigerian military killed more than 100 members of a criminal gang in an air and ground raid over the weekend, according to a conflict monitoring report produced for the United Nations and seen by AFP on Monday.

Armed groups called "bandits" by locals have for years been terrorising communities in northwest and central Nigeria, raiding villages, kidnapping residents for ransom and burning homes after looting them.

The military raid in the restive northwestern state of Zamfara was launched "in the early hours" Sunday in the Bukkuyum local government area, where fighter jets in coordination with ground troops pounded a gathering of more than 400 bandits in their Makakkari forest camp.

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The military's attack "may have occurred in response to consecutive banditry, especially kidnapping, in the state in the previous month", the report said, noting a link between a recent decrease in military operations in the state and a spate of bandit attacks.

Bukkuyum's Adabka village was on Friday the scene of a bandit attack that saw residents kidnapped and 13 security personnel killed.

Bandits had been planning an attack on a farming village when "air and ground troops ambushed a bandit camp... killing over 100", the report said.

A spokesman for the Nigerian army did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

Nigeria's "banditry" crisis originated in conflict over land and water rights between herders and farmers but has morphed into organised crime, with gangs preying on rural communities that have long had little or no government presence.

Cattle rustling and kidnapping have become huge moneymakers in the largely impoverished countryside.

Groups also levy taxes on farmers and artisanal miners.

The conflict is worsening a malnutrition crisis in the northwest as attacks drive people away from their farms, in a situation that has been complicated by climate change and western aid cuts.

Despite military deployment to fight the criminal gangs since 2015 and the creation of a militia force by the Zamfara state government two years ago, the violence has persisted.

In July, Nigerian troops killed at least 95 members of an armed gang in a shootout and air strikes in the northwest state of Niger.

But the military is overstretched, with banditry spreading out of its northwestern heartland into central Nigeria.

Bandits, who are primarily motivated by money, have also increased their cooperation with Nigeria's jihadist groups, who are waging a separate, 16-year-old armed insurrection in the northeast.