Nigeria 'neutralised' 13,000 'terrorists' in past year, according to President

Nigeria has killed more than 13,000 "terrorists" in the past year, President Bola Tinubu said Friday, adding that the death toll from the country's jihadist insurgency is down 81 percent since he took power in 2023.

"Over 13,000 terrorists have been neutralised in the past year," Tinubu said, without specifying if he meant in 2025 or in the previous 12 months.

He also said that over "124,000 fighters and dependents have laid down their arms since 2023 through Operation Safe Corridor".

Africa's most populous country is fighting a long-running jihadist insurgency across its northern regions, complicated by inroads made by militants from the Sahel, and non-ideological "bandit" gangs.

The insurgency, which has spawned multiple armed groups, has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions since it began in 2009 with an uprising by the jihadist group Boko Haram.

The crisis has also been compounded by violent farmer-herder clashes in parts of the northeast and central regions, while secessionist agitation rumbles on in the southeast, and rampant kidnappings for ransom plague the country's northwest and central regions.

The unrest is inching closer to the relatively safer southwest, where more than 40 students and teachers were seized from their schools in the state of Oyo in May.