NIGERIAN troops have killed more than 100 armed bandits in a coordinated air and ground offensive in Zamfara State, according to a United Nations conflict monitoring report sighted by News Point Nigeria on Monday.
The deadly operation was carried out in the early hours of Sunday in Bukkuyum Local Government Area, targeting a notorious gathering of more than 400 bandits in their Makakkari Forest stronghold.
Fighter jets, working in close coordination with ground forces, bombarded the camp before troops moved in to eliminate fleeing gunmen.
The UN-linked report suggested the raid may have been launched in direct response to a wave of violent attacks and kidnappings that swept through Zamfara last month, coinciding with what it described as “a decrease in military activity” in the state.
Just two days earlier, on Friday, Bukkuyum’s Adabka village had suffered a deadly assault in which bandits kidnapped residents and killed 13 security personnel.
Intelligence indicated the gunmen were preparing another attack on a farming community when they were ambushed by troops.
The Nigerian Army has yet to issue an official statement, but security analysts say the scale of the raid underscores renewed efforts to dismantle the operational bases of bandit groups in the northwest.
For years, armed gangs known locally as bandits have plagued rural communities across northwest and central Nigeria, looting villages, abducting residents for ransom, rustling cattle, and burning homes.
Originally rooted in herder–farmer disputes over land and water, the crisis has morphed into an entrenched criminal enterprise involving kidnapping syndicates and extortion rackets.
These attacks have worsened food insecurity and malnutrition in the region as farmers abandon their fields, compounded by climate change impacts and reductions in foreign aid.
Despite years of military operations and the creation of a state-backed militia in Zamfara, violence continues to spread into central Nigeria.
Bandit groups have also increased cooperation with jihadist factions in the northeast, blending organised crime with extremist insurgency.
In July, troops carried out a similar large-scale raid in Niger State, killing at least 95 armed criminals. But with the army stretched across multiple security crises, experts warn that sustaining such offensives will be key to reversing the tide of rural violence.
