KATSINA, Nigeria (BN24) — Nigerian military airstrikes freed at least 76 hostages, including women and children, during a raid on militant hideouts in the country’s northwest, officials said Saturday.
The strikes targeted criminal strongholds around Pauwa Hill in the Kankara district of Katsina state during the early hours of the morning, according to Nasir Mu’azu, the state commissioner for internal security. Authorities said the operation was launched as part of a manhunt for a notorious kidnapper.
Among those freed were victims of a recent assault on a mosque in Unguwan Mantau, where at least 50 worshippers were killed. “However, it was regrettably noted that one child tragically lost his life during the ordeal,” Mu’azu said.
The rescues come amid a surge of violence across Nigeria’s northwest and north-central regions, where heavily armed gangs have carried out mass kidnappings, village raids, and deadly attacks linked to disputes between herders and farmers over scarce land and water. Last month, gunmen killed at least 150 people in a single assault in north-central Nigeria, underscoring the scale of the crisis.
Mu’azu described the latest air campaign as “part of a broader strategy to dismantle criminal hideouts, weaken their networks and put an end to the cycle of killings, kidnappings, and extortion that have plagued innocent citizens.”
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is also battling a separate jihadist insurgency in its northeast, where violence has killed more than 35,000 people and displaced over 2 million, according to the United Nations.
In addition to the hostage rescue, the military confirmed that 35 militants were killed Saturday in separate targeted airstrikes in the northwest. Despite stepped-up counterinsurgency operations under President Bola Tinubu, authorities acknowledge that militant violence remains persistent across multiple regions.
AP
