The Defence Headquarters says troops have rescued 18 kidnap victims in Kwara State and two others in Borno State, while neutralising suspected terrorists and arresting alleged criminal collaborators in different parts of the country.

The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Michael Onoja, disclosed this in a statement covering military operations between October ninth and fifteenth.

He said the 18 victims were rescued on October tenth after troops of Operation Savannah Shield, working with local security groups, responded to a distress call over the abduction of residents from their farmlands in the Eruku-Egbe-Koro Forest area of Ekiti Local Government Area, Kwara State.

According to him, the abductors abandoned their victims and fled into the forest following a military pursuit.Two AK-47 magazines containing four rounds of ammunition were recovered during the operation.

In Borno State, troops of Operation Hadin Kai rescued two abducted persons, identified as Bello Ibrahim and Ibrahim Adamu, around the Kuranabasa axis of Gwoza Local Government Area on October fifteenth.

The military also arrested suspected terrorist collaborators and logistics suppliers in Borno State, while some individuals linked to terrorist groups surrendered to troops alongside their family members.

In Adamawa State, troops recovered a cache of weapons, including a PKT machine gun, six AK-47 rifles, ammunition, magazines and a sixty-millimetre mortar bomb, following an encounter with suspected terrorists in Hong Local Government Area.

Four bodies of suspected terrorists were later discovered during patrols in the area.

Meanwhile, troops of Operation Fansan Yamma rescued another kidnap victim in the North-West after engaging suspected terrorists around Galadimawa, forcing them to abandon the victim.

In Kaduna State, a suspect, Yusuf Iliya Sani, was arrested over alleged involvement in kidnapping, extortion, sexual assault and killings in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area.