The Defence Headquarters says the military has eliminated about 392 bandits in the North West and North Central since the commencement of Operation Katsina on May 14.
The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche, disclosed this while giving an update of the military operations across the country at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.
Enenche stated the operation was launched as a subsidiary operation under Operation Hadarin Daji to deal with the menace of banditry in the region.
He said the troops through land and air offensives successfully degraded the bandits and other criminal elements in the two zones.
According to him, those bandits that escaped resorted to reprisal attacks on civilian targets, leading to the launching of Operation Accord on June 1.
Enenche said Operation Accord was planned by the military high command to handle the situation.
He said: “In this regard, the Chief of Defence Staff ordered the commencement of Operation Accord from June 1 as a joint operation involving the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies.
“It is a concomitant operation by all the theatres of operations in the North West and North Central regions of the country targeted at tackling banditry and other criminal activities.
“In this regard, all identified hideouts and hibernations of the enemies will be decisively cleared through land and air combat actions.
“This can easily be achieved through provision of credible information that can translate to actionable intelligence.
“Thus, the general public is hereby requested to avail the various operational outfits in their locations with this highly desirable information, to enable the Nigerian Military and other security agencies achieve the set objective.”
Enenche said the various operations had progressed successfully in all theatres of operations in the last one week.
In the North East, he disclosed that the military and other security agencies had been on the offensive against the terrorists mainly through the Land and Air components of Operation Lafiya Dole.
According to him, the significant feats achieved in this theatre included deletion of key BHT/ISWAP commanders, destruction of their logistics bases and cutting off their supply routes.
He said: “Equally, their camps have been in disarray as a result of the killing of some of their key commanders through airstrikes and artillery bombardments on their identified locations.
“This is additional to the aggressive mobile clearance operations and air interdictions.
“Thus, the terrorists now carry out attacks in depleted strength on soft targets which is being effectively countered by the gallant troops of Operation Lafiya Dole.”
Enenche added that the military high command had commended the gallantry of all the troops of Nigerian Army, Navy, Air Force and personnel of other security agencies involved in various operations across the country.
He also commended the public for providing credible information that had so far facilitated the successes of these operations.
Enenche also urged the public to be proactive in providing timely information by reporting suspicious movements and strangers within their locality to troops stationed in their areas.
This, according to him, is very necessary for enhancement of operational activities.
“The Armed Forces of Nigeria assures that these offensives against the common enemies of this Nation will not cease until normalcy is restored to all the troubled regions of the country,” he said.