The country is battling a more than 15-year jihadist insurgency in the northeast, as well as a farmer-herder conflict in the north-central region, violent secessionist agitation in the southeast and rampant kidnap-for-ransom in the northwest.

A spokesman, Ademola Owolana, said the army launched an operation in August 2024 as a "response to incessant cases of arms and ammunition theft".

"So far, a total of 18 soldiers, 15 mobile policemen and eight civilians, including a traditional ruler, have been arrested," Owolana said at a Wednesday briefing whose recording was accessed by AFP on Friday.

"A few soldiers motivated by greed had been involved in ammunition racketeering, deliberately diverting arms from military stockpiles and supplies chains to terrorists," he added.

The country has seen a resurgence in deadly jihadist attacks in the northeast in recent weeks, with Boko Haram and the IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) staging raids targeting military bases in particular.

Raids on military bases have provided jihadists in the Sahel countries with at least 20 percent of their weapons, according to the UK-based Conflict Armament Research (CAR), which has studied jihadist weapons sources for a decade.