ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian soldiers killed 79 militants and suspected kidnappers over the past week, the army said Friday, in an operation targeting a decades-long insurgency by Islamic militants in the northeast and attacks by various armed groups in the northwest.
The West African country has been ramping up efforts to secure the country as some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in the northeastern region, according to the U.N.
The nationwide operation by Nigeria’s military led to the arrest of 252 individuals and the liberation of 67 hostages held by the militants, a Nigerian military spokesperson, Edward Buba, said in a statement.
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Kidnappings have become a common occurrence in Nigeria’s northwest, where dozens of armed groups exploit the region’s limited security presence to carry out attacks on villages and along major roads. Many victims are only released after the payment of ransoms that sometimes run into the thousands of dollars.
The 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram extremists in the village of Chibok in the northeastern state of Borno — the epicenter of the conflict between armed groups and the military — captured the attention of the world.
Among the arrested are also 28 suspects linked to crude oil theft, which is prevalent in the southern part of Nigeria, a major oil-producing nation, causing the country to lose billions of dollars in revenue annually. This activity has severely impacted the economy and government earnings.
Last year, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative said Nigeria lost over $46 billion due to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.
The military also arrested seven suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, a separatist group demanding the creation of an independent Biafra state from the troubled southeast region of Nigeria.
The secessionist campaign in southeastern Nigeria dates back to the 1960s when the short-lived Republic of Biafra fought and lost a civil war from 1967 to 1970 to become independent from the West African country. An estimated 1 million people died in the conflict, many from starvation.
One of its leaders, Simon Ekpa, was arrested in Finland in November accused of inciting violence on social media.
