Operation against Nigerian kidnapping gang kills '200 bandits'

More than 200 suspected members of an armed criminal gang in central Nigeria have been killed in an ongoing operation, an official has told the BBC.

The large-scale, multi-agency offensive started on Saturday and had also led to arrests, the media officer for the Kogi State government said — without specifying a number.

Footage shared with the BBC by the Kogi police, filmed from a helicopter, shows flames raging from one settlement in a densely forested area.

For years, members of criminal gangs —known locally as bandits - have carried out killings and kidnappings for ransom, mainly targeting those in the north-west — but they have been moving to other parts of the country more recently.

This operation follows a surge in mass abductions, including attacks on schools, which have sparked nationwide outrage and prompted the government to intensify security efforts.

Last month, the authorities secured the release of the remaining pupils and teachers kidnapped in November from a boarding school in Niger state, which borders Kogi.

Several bandit camps were destroyed during coordinated operations over the weekend, involving the different arms of the country's security and paramilitary forces, Kingsley Fanwo, Kogi state's commissioner for information, said.

But efforts to hunt down those who had fled were being hampered as they were using some of the civilians they had abducted for ransom as human shields, he said.

"Security forces have put them in disarray wherever they try to regroup," Fanwo told the BBC.

"The only problem is that the bandits have kidnapped several individuals, who they are using as human shields, knowing that the security forces wouldn't want to kill the hostages along with the bandits."