Nigerian gunmen kidnapped more than 40 people in two mass abductions in the northwest, police said on Wednesday, near where the army is carrying out air strikes and raids against criminal kidnap gangs.

Northwest and central Nigeria have seen a surge in attacks by heavily-armed groups known as bandits who carry out mass abductions for ransom and raids on villages to loot and steal cattle.

On Monday night gunmen attacked Keke community in Chikun in Kaduna State, kidnapping 17 people, though five were later rescued by security forces, state police spokesman Mohammed Jalige said.

"Twelve hostages are still in captivity and our tactical response teams are combing the area with the mission to rescue them," he said.

Gunmen also attacked Dange Shuni village in Sokoto State late Tuesday, snatching 28 people, although eight were later freed, Sokoto police spokesman Sanusi Abubakar said.

The village is near the border with Zamfara State where the military is carrying out air strikes and ground operations against bandit camps.

"We presume they came from Zamfara because of military operations there," Abubakar said of the Sokoto attack.

Local authorities have also shut down telecoms in Zamfara State to stop informants passing along details about troop movements to bandits.

Few details have emerged about the ongoing military crackdown in Zamfara and reaching local officials has been complicated because of the telecoms blackout.

The Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria confirmed mobile phone towers in other states near Zamfara border area had also been shut down.

Locals in Zamfara and its border areas say they have been travelling to Funtua town in neighbouring Katsina State in order to receive and make calls and carry out bank transactions, which have also been disrupted by the telecoms shutdown.

Northwest and central regions of Africa's most populous nation have long been troubled by tit-for-tat attacks between communities of nomadic herders and settled farmers who clash over water and land.

But violence has spiralled recently as criminal gangs emerged to carry out mass abductions, and this year they have turned their sights on schools to abduct pupils for ransom.

More than 1,000 students have been snatched since December in mass kidnappings, although most have been freed following negotiations after weeks or sometimes months in captivity.

Bandit gangs operate hideouts deep in forests that cut across several northwestern states. But past military operations and attempts to negotiate amnesty deals have failed to stop the violence.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday met with security chiefs in Abuja, where the defense minister told reporters the Nigerian leader had pushed for urgent solutions to violence in the northwest.

Nigeria's security forces are already battling a 12-year-old jihadist insurgency in the country's northeast that has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million more.

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