ABUJA — About 200 suspected members of a criminal band have been killed in an ongoing operation in central Nigeria, according to the BBC.

The multi-agency offensive started on Saturday and had also led to arrests, Kingsley Fanwo, Kogi state's commissioner for information, said.He did not specify the number of arrests.

For years, members of criminal gangs have carried out killings and kidnappings for ransom, mainly targeting those in the north-west — but they have been moving to other parts of the country more recently.

The latest operation follows a surge in mass abductions, including attacks on schools, which have sparked nationwide outrage and prompted the government to intensify security efforts.

Last month, the authorities secured the release of the remaining pupils and teachers kidnapped in November from a boarding school in Niger state, which borders Kogi.

Several bandit camps were destroyed during co-ordinated operations over the weekend involving the different arms of the country's security and paramilitary forces, Fanwo said.

But efforts to hunt down those who had fled were being hampered as they were using some abducted civilians as human shields, he said.

"Security forces have put them in disarray wherever they try to regroup," Fanwo told the BBC.

"The only problem is that the bandits have kidnapped several individuals which they are using as human shields, knowing that the security forces wouldn't want to kill the hostages along with the bandits."

Kogi state has increasingly emerged as an insecurity hotspot.

Its location, linking Nigeria's north and south through dense forest corridors, has made it attractive to armed groups operating across state boundaries, security officials say.

Security expert Bashir Galma, a retired army major, said the Kogi offensive follows a recent directive by President Bola Tinubu to top security officials to intensify efforts against the bandits.

As well as kidnapping gangs, Nigeria faces an array of other complex security issues including an Islamist insurgency, clashes over land and separatist unrest.

On Tuesday, the US military tweeted a photo of a plane with "critical military supplies" being unloaded in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

The US Africa Command's post on X said the delivery supported "Nigeria's ongoing operations" and emphasized its "shared security partnership".

The US has recently become militarily involved in Nigeria — launching some airstrikes on Christmas Day on two camps run by an Islamist militant group in north-western Nigeria.

There are more than 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria, which is roughly divided into a mainly Muslim north, a largely Christian south, with intermingling in the middle — and the government says people of all faiths have been victims of attacks.

''Nigeria remains committed to protecting all citizens, Christians and Muslims alike, without discrimination,'' foreign ministry spokesman Alkasim Abdulkadir said last week. — Agencies