13TH JANUARY, 2026
More than 200 suspected members of an armed criminal gang in central Nigeria have been killed in an ongoing operation.
The large-scale, multi-agency offensive started on Saturday and had also led to arrests, the media officer for the Kogi state government said.
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 co-ordinated 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.
“The only problem is that the bandits have kidnapped several individuals which they are using as human shields, knowing that the security forces wouldn’t want to kill the hostages along with the bandits.”
Kogi state has increasingly emerged as an insecurity hotspot.
Its location – linking Nigeria’s north and south through dense forest corridors – has made it attractive to armed groups operating across state boundaries, security officials say.
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