KANO, Nigeria, July 11, 2025 (AFP) - Nigerian soldiers killed at least 150 members of a criminal gang in an ambush in northwestern Kebbi state this week, a local official said Thursday.

For years, heavily armed kidnapping gangs known as "bandits" have been intensifying attacks in the northwest and central areas of the west African country with impunity, killing thousands and abducting people for ransom.

Troops laid ambush on a massive convoy of bandits as they rode through villages in Kebbi state's Danko-Wasagu district on Wednesday, leading to a two-hour gunfight, said Husaini Bena, the political administrator of Danko-Wasagu.

The heavily armed bandits, riding on around 350 motorcycles, were heading to their base in neighbouring Niger state when they were ambushed by the troops, Bena said.

"More than 150 bandits were killed in the military operation which involved ground troops and fighter jets," he said.

The military forced the bandits to retreat, but jets "bombed them as they fled", he added.

Nigeria's air force has come under scrutiny in the past for bombing civilians in its campaigns against bandits and jihadists, as the country slogs through conflicts across multiple fronts.

AbdulRahman Zagga, director of security in the Kebbi state governor's office, confirmed the incident in a statement.

He said troops fought around 400 bandits, "resulting in the elimination of many" of them, without giving a toll.

- Both sides trade losses -

Zagga said that bandits were suspected to be the same group that recently attacked a military base in Niger state, killing 20 soldiers.

Troops continued to comb the countryside on Thursday.

Nigeria's banditry crisis has evolved from clashes between Fulani herders and farmers over resources into a broader conflict fuelled by arms trafficking, with gangs taking advantage of security vacuums in rural swaths of Nigeria that have long had little formal state presence.

The gangs launch attacks from their camps in a vast forest which straddles several northwestern and central states.

Security analysts have noted increasing cooperation between the criminal gangs, who are motivated primarily by financial gains in the impoverished country, and jihadists, who are waging a 16-year-old insurrection in the northeast.

As the insurgent campaign by Boko Haram and rival Islamic State West Africa Province drags on, the Nigerian military said Thursday it killed 24 jihadists in northeastern Borno state following days-long military operations.

But gains against bandits and jihadists are repeatedly offset by the killing of troops and civilians.

Last month, authorities in Zamfara state in the northwest said a government-supported militia killed 100 bandits in a raid on their stronghold.

On Wednesday, Katsina state authorities claimed at least 30 bandits were killed in air strikes.

But over the weekend, bandits killed more than 40 vigilantes who had mobilised to fight them, in an ambush in central Plateau state.