The Nigerian military says that in the last three months, dozens of rebel group leaders have been killed

A military spokesman said on Thursday that since the third quarter of the year, Nigeria’s military has killed hundreds of fighters and dozens of leaders of armed rebel groups all over the country.

There is a 15-year Islamist conflict in Nigeria’s northeast, violence between separatists in the southeast, a lot of oil theft in the Niger River delta, and kidnappings for ransom by criminal gangs, called bandits, in the northwest.

Major-General Edward Buba, a spokesman for the military, said, “troops offensive actions culminated in the neutralization of 65 notable terrorist leaders, commanders, and combatants across all theaters of operations.”

“Overall, in the third quarter of this year, troops neutralized 1,937 terrorists, arrested 2,782 suspected terrorists and other criminal elements as well as rescued 1,854 hostages,” Buba said in a note.

People from Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province, and other unspecified criminal groups were killed. Halilu Sububu was killed. The military put out a wanted poster for him in 2022 with a five million naira reward, Buba said.

In early September, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu told the minister of defense and top military leaders to move to Sokoto, which is in the northwest and is one of the worst-hit states, to help fight crime.

Since then, the military has taken more action against armed groups by increasing operations on land and in the air.