ABUJA, Nov 8 (NNN-XINHUA) — At least 481 suspected gunmen were killed and over 741 others were detained by the Nigerian troops in anti-terror operations held across the country in October, the military said.
In addition, over 492 hostages were freed from their captors in different parts of the country in the past month, Edward Buba, the spokesperson for the military, told reporters during a bimonthly briefing in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
During this period, a total of 480 weapons and 9,026 assorted ammunition were recovered by the military, Buba said, noting that troops significantly dismantled hideouts of criminal groups across the country in various theaters of operations.
He added that the strategy of the military is to undermine the ability of criminal groups and their cohorts.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian military said it has identified a new terror group known as “Lukarawas” exacerbating insecurity in the northwestern part of the country.
Edward Buba, the spokesman for the military, told reporters in the national capital of Abuja that the suspected terror group, with a yet-to-be-known ideology, has so far made an incursion into the northwestern states of Sokoto and Kebbi.
Buba said the terror group is suspected to have emerged from a neighboring West African country, where a recent coup led to the breakdown of military cooperation with Nigeria.
“The terrorists took advantage of the gaps in cooperation between both countries and exploited difficult terrains to make incursions in remote areas,” the military spokesman said, noting there used to be joint border operations between Nigerian security forces and those of the neighboring country, which “kept the terrorists at bay.”
Upon its incursion into Nigeria, the suspected terror group was accommodated by the locals in the aforementioned northwestern states, who initially thought that the group meant well for them and failed to report the movement to the military and security agencies, he said.
Buba said the military has launched sustained intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions to locate and eliminate its members.
The terror group has continued to take advantage of the vast under-governed areas to hide and evade troops as well as harass the locals, he added. — NNN-XINHUA