At least 50 bandits have been killed in Kaduna state on Tuesday.
This was revealed by the Kaduna State Government.
The government said the bandits were killed in Birnin Gwari, through the combined efforts of ground troops and air raids.
Mr. Samuel Aruwan Commissioner, Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Kaduna State confirmed this, in a statement.
“In an inspiring success for the security forces, over 50 bandits have been neutralized during a combined ground and air assault in the Saulawa-Farin Ruwa axis of Birnin Gwari LGA.”
The statement said the operational feedback to the Kaduna State Government from the Command of the Joint Operations, a Nigerian Air Force helicopter gunship provided close air support to ground troops advancing from the Dogon Dawa-Damari-Saulawa axis.
It said following extensive scans, bandits were spotted on five motorcycles, about 4km east of Saulawa, waiting to ambush the ground forces. They were engaged vigorously by the helicopter gunship, and were wiped out.
“After this, armed bandits on about 50 motorcycles were sighted fleeing towards Farin Ruwa, and were struck effectively by the gunship. Fleeing remnants were mopped up by ground forces,” it said
He added that a second helicopter gunship joined the operations, and many more fleeing bandits were neutralized by precise strikes, adding that, an assessment, revealed that more than 50 bandits were neutralized during the joint operation.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai expressed his satisfaction at the operational feedback, and congratulated the ground troops and gunship crews on the rout.
He urged them to sustain the momentum and bring even more bandits to their bitter end.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal has lamented how Zamfara bandits are terrorising Sokoto residents.
The governor stated this when the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya, visited him on Monday in Sokoto.
Mr Tambuwal appealed for more efforts to contain the security challenges, confirming that a gang of bandits attacked communities in Goronyo local government area in the state and killed scores of people on Sunday.
He emphasised that more security presence and collective strategies were needed to contain the increasing security challenges bedevilling the state and nation at large.
According to him, bandits flushed out Zamfara are fleeing to Sokoto and other states.
“From last night, yesterday evening till this morning, we were greeted with dastardly attacks in Goronyo local government, particularly Goronyo town, where scores lost their lives and still counting,” said the governor. “We are not sure of the figure, but about 30 persons died.”
Mr Tambuwal appealed for a synergy between the army and other security operatives in the state while requesting more troops and deployment of resources to the state.
He described the visit by the COAS as a homecoming, noting that his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari as COAS had been widely greeted with cheers in Sokoto, being an indigene of the state.
“You have come at a very trying moment for the army and the Nigerian nation. We are faced and bedevilled by many security challenges in our own area here, particularly banditry, kidnapping and other associated crimes,” added Mr Tambuwal. “We shall continue to pray for your success, the army and its operatives in general, to ensure success over criminals.”
The governor pledged that his administration would continue to support the army and other security agencies toward achieving success.
Troops of the Joint Task Force, North East Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), have killed Boko Haram/Islamic States West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists, says the Nigerian Army.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, said this in a statement on Monday in Ábuja.
Mr Nwachukwu said the troops deployed alongside the Cameroonian Defence Force had on Monday killed four terrorists at the Forward Operating Base (FOB), Wulgo in Borno.
He added the “vigilant troops successfully” foiled attempted infiltration of the terrorists into the camp while “on patrol to dominate their area of responsibility.”
According to him, the troops “swiftly responded with overwhelming fire and spontaneous” reinforcement from the battalion headquarters, forcing the terrorists to retreat.
“Troops immediately carried out a hot pursuit and exploitation after the encounter, along the terrorists’ route of withdrawal and neutralised three terrorists. The gallant troops also recovered three AK 47 rifles, six magazines and 50 rounds of 7.62mm special,” he said.
Mr Nwachukwu also stated that four other terrorists were killed the same day, around the 151 Battalion location, noting that they were burnt beyond recognition, “as their gun truck mounted with anti-aircraft guns ran over an improvised explosive device (IED).”
He also mentioned that the troops were currently conducting further exploitation to “clear any surviving terrorists.”
“The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya, has commended the efforts of the troops. He charged them to remain aggressive and focused, as they dominate their areas of operational responsibility to ensure complete extermination of the terrorists and restoration of normalcy,” the army statement added.
Desperate to feed her family, Saleha, a housecleaner here in western Afghanistan, has incurred such an insurmountable debt that the only way she sees out is to hand over her 3-year-old daughter, Najiba, to the man who lent her the money.
The debt is $550.
Saleha, a 40-year-old mother of six who goes by one name, earns 70 cents a day cleaning homes in a wealthier neighborhood of Herat. Her much older husband doesn’t have any work.
Such is the starkness of deepening poverty in Afghanistan, a humanitarian crisis that is worsening fast after the Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, prompting the U.S. to freeze $9 billion in Afghan central-bank assets and causing a halt in most foreign aid.
Already, 95% of Afghans aren’t getting enough to eat, according to the United Nations’ World Food Program, which has warned that “people are being pushed to the brink of survival.” Almost the entire Afghan population of 40 million people could fall below the poverty line in coming months, according to the U.N.
Behind these statistics lie countless personal tragedies of families like Saleha’s. She and her husband used to work on a farm in the western province of Badghis, but two years ago lost that income because of fighting in the area and drought. So they borrowed money just to get food. Hoping to find employment, they ended up moving to a giant encampment of people displaced from other provinces, known as Shahrak Sabz, in Herat.
With the financial system and trade paralyzed after the Taliban takeover, prices for basic food items like flour and oil have doubled since mid-August. The lender offered early this month to write off the debt if she hands over her little girl.
They have three months to provide the money. Otherwise, Najiba will be doing household work in the lender’s home and be married off to one of his three sons when she reaches puberty. They are not sure which one. The oldest is now 6.
“If life continues to be this awful, I will kill my children and myself,” said Saleha, speaking in her tiny two-room home. “I don’t even know what we will eat tonight.”
“I will try to find money to save my daughter’s life,” added her husband, Abdul Wahab.
The lender, Khalid Ahmad, confirmed he had made the offer to the couple.
“I also don’t have money. They haven’t paid me back,” said Ahmad, reached by phone in Badghis. “So there is no option but taking the daughter.”
Following the Taliban takeover, neighboring Pakistan and Iran, where many men from this community used to work as laborers, closed their borders, bracing for a flood of refugees. All that is left as work is collecting plastic bottles and other trash to sell for recycling. Other families in the area have had to surrender children to repay debts, residents say.
Growing destitution could undermine the Taliban’s so-far solid hold on power and serve as a recruiting tool for the local branch of Islamic State, their only significant rival. A Taliban official in the west of the country said that Afghans would have to get used to a meager existence.
“We suffered for 20 years fighting jihad, we lost members of our families, we didn’t have proper food, and in the end, we were rewarded with this government. If people have to struggle for a few months, so what?” said the official. “Popularity is not important for the Taliban.”
Taliban officials have repeatedly said they welcome international aid for Afghanistan but wouldn’t compromise on their Islamic beliefs to secure assistance.
The humanitarian crisis, however, is prompting a debate within the international community over whether to condition foreign assistance on the Taliban moderating their behavior and showing more respect for the rights of women and minorities.
Afghanistan’s new health minister, a urologist appointed by the Taliban and one of the few non-clerics in the new administration, pleaded for the international community not to abandon the country.
“It is the same mother, the same child, the same patient you were previously helping. They haven’t changed,” Qalandar Ibaad said in an interview. “Governments change in all countries.”
Groups like the International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.N. warn that emergency humanitarian aid must be unconditional. While demanding that the Taliban allow women to study and work is important, they argue, a more urgent priority is to make sure women don’t freeze or starve to death this winter.
The U.S. and other Western nations that spent the past two decades fighting in Afghanistan have a particular responsibility, some aid officials say.
“These countries who have their fingerprints all over the sorry situation here have at least to disburse the funding we need so we can avoid people perishing in enormous numbers this winter,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which operates in more than a dozen Afghan provinces, said in an interview in Kabul. “To pause the lifesaving funding because we’re still negotiating female rights would be utterly wrong.”
Egeland, a former head of the U.N.’s emergency aid arm, said his organization wouldn’t reopen the boys schools in provinces where girls schools weren’t allowed, but it wouldn’t withhold aid that could save lives.
Heather Barr, associate director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, said that donors had vowed they would judge the Taliban by its actions, but the risk of famine left them with little choice but to provide aid regardless.
“The Taliban are holding Afghans hostage and playing chicken with the international community,” she said.
Some 2,300 Afghan hospitals and clinics were dependent on foreign funding before the Taliban takeover. Just 17% of those are now fully functional, and 64% are out of essential drugs, said Richard Brennan, the regional emergency director for the World Health Organization.
International aid had also paid the salaries of tens of thousands of doctors, nurses and teachers, now struggling to get by.
In Herat, an emergency feeding center for severely malnourished babies run by the French charity Doctors Without Borders is full and has had to expand capacity. Babies are arriving with respiratory distress, dehydration, and shock. Their mothers are getting such little sustenance that they can’t produce enough milk.
At Herat Regional Hospital, the staff have threatened to quit after not having been paid for four months. The government hospital has run out of even common medicines like antibiotics and basic supplies like surgical gloves and bandages. Oxygen is in short supply. Patients have to purchase their own medicines, anesthetic and other necessities for surgeries.
“I hope we don’t go back to the situation of 25, 30 years ago, when there were basically no health facilities in this country,” said Mohammad Aref Jalali, the medical director. “We could lose everything we have achieved.”
In the orthopedic ward, Abdul Rahman, was lying on a bed with pins sticking out of his leg, where he was shot by robbers for the motorbike he was riding. The wound had become infected and doctors told the father of seven they might now have to amputate the leg.
“If they cut off my leg, there’s no one else to provide for my family,” said Rahman, a laborer, age 37. “What will happen to my little children?”
President Muhammadu Buhari felicitates with the Muslim Ummah, Nigerians of all faiths and the followers of Islam all over the world on the occasion of the Maulud-Un-Nabiyy, the birthday of the Holy Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him.
In a message to mark the occasion, Tuesday, 19th October, a public holiday throughout the Federation, President Buhari says, “I am delighted to send greetings of peace, unity and goodwill to the Muslim Ummah, fellow citizens and Muslims all over the world as they observe and celebrate Eid-ul- Maulud.”
The President urges Muslims to strive for “forgiveness and closeness to the noble life and teachings of the Prophet (SAW) whose birthday is being marked on this blessed day. On this auspicious occasion, I wish you all the blessings of today.”
The President uses the occasion to give a snapshot of the increased activities the Armed Forces, Police Force, and intelligence agencies have embarked upon to effectively respond to the security challenges in the nation.
He says the government fully expects and intends for these trends to continue, and calls on the media to address the tone, content, and standards of reporting into security and safety measures. Time has come to revise the prefixes “rising insecurity” with “declining insecurity.”
The President adds that increased cooperation and collaboration from the citizenry, coupled with reinvigorated, dynamic, and energized police, security and military leadership is helping the administration score more victories against terror, criminality, and economic sabotage. The reality of declining insecurity should replace the inaccurate narrative of rising insecurity in the country.
“While there is work to do, the men and women in uniform who are helping the nation to achieve this goal, desire our collective appreciation and encouragement to do even more. The whole country and its mass communications systems have a duty in this regard,” the President adds.
President Buhari concludes his message by appealing to road users to drive with care and avoid needless accidents.
At least 49 persons have been killed after gunmen invaded a market at Goronyo town in the Goronyo local government area of Sokoto State.
One of the villagers told SaharaReporters that residents have fled the community following the insecurity in the area. He noted that gunmen rounded up villagers in the market and opened fire on them.
He said: “Gunmen on Sunday evening killed at least 49 at Goronyo town of Sokoto State.
“The incident happened yesterday evening on the market day of the town. The gunmen rounded up people in the market while it was full of activities and started opening fire randomly. The town is now deserted.”
SaharaReporters had reported that the assailants attacked the market in large numbers on Sunday night, shooting sporadically and killing several persons.
In the past two weeks, bandits have launched attacks on a village market in Sokoto.
Earlier this month, at least 19 traders were killed by bandits who raided a weekly market at Unguwan Lalle in the Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
The attack also left several others injured, the majority of whom were taken for treatment at the General Hospital, Sabon Birni.
Unguwan Lalle, a community located along Goronyo-Sabon Birni Road, has suffered a series of bandits’ attacks in recent months.
Five soldiers who were on a rescue mission in the area were ambushed and killed by bandits a few months ago. A resident had said the attack happened during market hours.
For several weeks, troops have been conducting air and ground operations on bandit camps in neighbouring Zamfara state where authorities have shut down telecom services to disrupt communication between the gangs.
Bandits fleeing the military operation in Zamfara have set up camps in the Sabon Birni district from where they raid villages.
The influx of bandits from neighbouring Zamfara state prompted authorities in Sokoto to suspend weekly markets and shut down telecom towers in areas on the border with Zamfara, including Sabon Birni.
Last week, some youths of Goronyo town in the Goronyo local government area of Sokoto State flooded the streets to protest against the abysmal level of insecurity in the area.
A source said the youths were demonstrating against the insecurity in the area, which had forced many residents to flee the town.
He said, “Protest is going on at Goronyo town in Sokoto State. The youths took to the streets protesting rampant insecurity that is forcing people to flee the town. The protest is currently ongoing.”
Photos obtained by SaharaReporters show roadblocks and burning tyres as the youths expressed their displeasure with killings and kidnappings going on unchecked in their area.
Sokoto is one of the states ravaged by insecurity in the North, a situation that has worsened under President Muhammadu Buhari-led government. Just recently, the state government ordered the shutdown of telecommunications services in some parts of the state to curb the prevailing banditry in the state.
The ban on mobile phone services is effective in Dange Shuni, Tambuwal, Sabon Birni, Raba, Tureta, Goronyo, Tangaza and Isa local government areas amongst others.
Meanwhile, some bandits operating in the Eastern Senatorial District of the state recently resorted to writing letters to reach out to families of their victims to demand ransoms.
A source, who was privy to the bandits’ new antics in Sokoto, said a letter was written to a traditional ruler in Burkusuma, demanding a ransom to secure the release of 20 persons kidnapped from two communities in the Sabon Birni Local Government Area.
Attacks on police stations in the South-East region of Nigeria continued on Monday as unknown gunmen attacked the Divisional Police Headquarters situated in the Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
SaharaReporters gathered that the gunmen “stormed the station around 2 am, releasing all the suspects in custody in the police facility”.
Some operational vehicles were also set ablaze by the hoodlums while some officers escaped with bullet wounds.
Other circumstances surrounding the attack, including the identities of the attackers could not be ascertained at the time of filing this report.
Loveth Odah, Ebonyi State Police Command spokesperson confirmed the incident to SaharaReporters, saying the police commissioner was on his way to the scene to ascertain the level of damage.
The incident is the latest in what appears to be a growing trend of attacks on police stations and security personnel in the South-East region of the country.
The governors in the region recently announced the establishment of a joint security outfit, codenamed ‘Ebube Agu’ to “battle rising insecurity”.
Gunmen have invaded the Mararaba Akunza community area of the Federal University of Lafia in the Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State and abducted four people believed to be students of the institution.
Daily Trust learnt that the incident occurred between 7-8pm when it was raining heavily on Saturday night.
An eyewitness, who spoke to our reporter in confidence, said the gunmen came in their large number and started shooting sporadically into the air before abducting their victims to an unknown destination.
It was gathered that the kidnappers have made contact with the family of the victims around 11.30pm last night, demanding N25 million ransom.
The source said: “The gunmen came in their large number and started shooting sporadically into the air, scaring residents of Mararaba Akunza community, before abducting four students.
“But nobody knows whether they are students of Federal University of Lafia.”
“It was raining heavily on Saturday night when the suspected kidnappers came in with their AK 47 riffles and carried out their operation successfully that lasted for several hours and succeeded in kidnapping some students, but no one knows whether they are students of Federal University of Lafia.”
Our correspondent learnt that one of the victims is Zafir Yahaya, the first son of a prominent politician in the state, Mr Yahaya Adams, popularly called Majo.
When our correspondent visited the Anti-Kidnapping Unity, Police Area Command in Lafia at exactly 11:am on Sunday, he saw the Chief Security (CSO) of the Federal University of Lafia, Wing commander Umar Mohammed (rtd) alongside some students of the institution making a complaint before the OC anti-Kidnapping, Mr Eyoh Anette.
While confirming the incident to our correspondent in an interview on Sunday, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr Abubakar Ibrahim, denied that those victims were students of the Federal University of Lafia.
He said: “None of our students was kidnapped by suspected kidnappers. The incident happened outside the university.
“No report from any parent regarding the abduction of their children schooling in our institution,” he stated.
The Police Public Relation Officer in the state, ASP Nansel Ramhan, said the command only had about the incident on social media, but immediately drafted men to the scene of the incident to investigate how it happened.
He said no official complaint has been made yet to the command, assuring that an investigation was ongoing to unravel the rationale behind the invasion of the area.
He said no arrest has been made to that effect.He said: H“The command is yet to receive an official complaint from the institution.”
The Nasarawa state police command has confirmed the invasion of suspected gunmen into Mararaba community shooting sporadically between the hour of 7pm and 8 pm, kidnapping two students of the Institution.
Confirming the invasion via a telephone conversation on Sunday to reporters is the Public Relations Officer of Nasarawa State command, ASP Ramhan Nansel who said the anti-kidnapping squad has been dispatched to commence investigation.
“We have just met as I speak with you at 12.30 pm in the Anti-kidnapping office with the institution’s PRO (public relations officer), CSO (chief security officer) on the issue, Nansel stated.”
According to a source who disclosed to Daily Sun reporter said the first son of Hon. Yahaya Adams (Major), by name Zafir Yahaya Adams, was kidnapped last night with one other student.
The source added that the kidnappers had demanded the sum of N25 million after contacting the family at about 11.30 pm on Saturday night.
The Nigerian Air Force coordinated ransom payments to armed bandits in exchange for an anti-aircraft gun seized from the Nigerian Army, The Wall Street Journal said, in a desperate deal that was brokered as President Muhammadu Buhari was planning a trip to Katsina.
The U.S. outlet said N20 million was delivered to the bandits in Rugu Forest by a Nigerian Air Force official, who leaked details of the operation under anonymity, because the military realised that it would be too risky to leave the weapon in the hands of violent criminals operating in an area the presidential jet would fly over.
The rugged, lawless jungle that covers parts of Kaduna, Zamfara and the president’s home state of Katsina has served as a vast haven for bandits terrorising Nigeria’s northwestern communities. A large portion of kidnapping plots emanates or terminates in or around the forest, security agencies have previously warned.
“The mission to buy back the antiaircraft gun began with a handoff from a high-ranking air force intelligence officer in the capital Abuja: a black zip-up bag he said was full of 20 million Nigerian naira,” the paper reported, after stating that such military hardware in the hands of bandits “posed a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari, who had been planning to fly to his hometown about 80 miles away.”
The gun truck with 12.7 caliber anti-aircraft fire was reportedly disassembled and transported back to the military on motorbikes after the deal was concluded.
The Journal did not specify when the deal was brokered or the presidential trip that was planned. The president has been in his hometown at least twice this year that his office disclosed to the public. The first trip was in late January and another in July.
Although the Nigerian government claimed combat victories against armed bandits, several military bases have been sacked by the violent criminals dreaded largely for their abduction of schoolchildren and prominent personalities, including politicians and emirs.
Last month, a forward operating base crucial to the military campaign against banditry was raided in Zamfara, leaving at least 12 officers killed. The bandits also seized military equipment when they captured the base in Dansadau, about 80 kilometres south of the capital Gusau, in the September 11 operation.
It was not immediately clear why service chiefs opted for ransom payment in the operation described by The Journal. Military weapons that fell into the hands of Boko Haram insurgents and bandits were usually destroyed by air strikes.
The Gazette has yet to hear back from the Nigerian Air Force about the reported N20 million ransom to bandits.
