In a decisive joint air and ground assault, Nigerian forces have eliminated more than 100 members of a notorious criminal gang in Zamfara State, according to a United Nations conflict-monitoring report made available on Monday.

The operation, carried out in the early hours of Sunday, targeted a gathering of over 400 armed gang members commonly referred to locally as “bandits” at their Makakkari forest camp in Bukkuyum Local Government Area. Fighter jets pounded the hideout while ground troops moved in, dismantling the group’s stronghold.

This offensive followed a surge in violent attacks across the state, including a brutal raid on Adabka village last Friday, in which dozens of residents were kidnapped and 13 security operatives lost their lives. Intelligence reports indicate the bandits had been plotting another large-scale assault on a farming settlement before they were intercepted.

The gangs, whose activities began as clashes between herders and farmers over land and water, have since evolved into highly organised criminal networks. They terrorise rural communities by raiding villages, abducting residents for ransom, rustling cattle, looting homes, and extorting farmers and artisanal miners. Their actions have deepened insecurity, displaced thousands, and worsened food shortages in the northwest already plagued by climate change and reduced humanitarian aid.

Despite years of military operations, including the deployment of a local militia by Zamfara State in 2023, bandit violence has persisted and expanded into central Nigeria. In July, at least 95 gang members were killed in a similar combined assault in Niger State. However, overstretched security forces continue to battle simultaneous threats from both the armed gangs and jihadist insurgents entrenched in the country’s northeast.

The Nigerian Army has yet to issue an official statement on Sunday’s operation, but the scale of the strike underscores the government’s continuing struggle to contain the spreading wave of rural banditry—an increasingly complex security crisis now intertwined with terrorism, organised crime, and resource disputes.