Nigerian state security forces have rescued nearly 100 kidnapping victims in the country's northwest at least two months after criminal gangs kidnapped them, Nigerian Police said Tuesday.

The past few months have seen the Nigerian police and army cracking down on heavily-armed groups - known locally as bandits - who target villages and communities, chiefly in central and northwestern states, for looting and mass kidnappings for ransom.

On Monday, the Nigerian police succeeded in rescuing 68 victims held in camps in the Shinkafi area of Zamfara State with the help of former bandits who became state informants, the Zamfara police said in a statement.

Those victims, which included men, women, and children, had been abducted for more than three months at the point of their rescue.

Another operation saw the police freeing nearly 30 victims from the Kuncchin Kalgo forest in Tsafe, Zamfara, 60 days after they had been kidnapped.

"All the rescued victims are currently receiving medical treatment from the joint medical teams of the state government and the police," the statement said. 

Northwestern and central Nigeria have long been struggling against cattle rustling and kidnap raids, but lately, the bandits have widened their scope and the attacks have become more widespread.

Since last year, bandits have increasingly targeted schools and colleges to abduct hundreds of students and schoolchildren to later exchange their freedom for ransom.

Security sources and residents reported in early September that the Nigerian army launched an operation against gangs in the northwest of the country, where authorities recently disrupted mobile phone networks.

Local bandits had kidnapped 73 students in the Zamfara state as part of a series of kidnappings targeting schools and universities in the northwest of the country.