ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At least 76 hostages, including children, have been freed after Nigeria’s military targeted militants with precision airstrikes in the country’s northwest, local authorities said.

The airstrikes were launched on targets around Pauwa Hill, located in the Kankara area of Katsina state, in the early hours of Saturday, Nasir Mu’azu, the state’s commissioner for internal security, said in a statement. The air assault was launched in a manhunt for a notorious kidnapper.

The rescued hostages include some of those kidnapped during an attack on a mosque in Unguwan Mantau that led to the death of at least 50 people, the commissioner said.

“However, it was regrettably noted that one child tragically lost his life during the ordeal,” Mu’azu said.

In recent months, there has been an uptick in attacks on communities in the northwest and north-central regions of Africa’s most populous country, where farmers often clash over limited access to land and water. An attack last month in north-central Nigeria killed 150 people.

The conflict has become deadlier in recent years, with authorities and analysts warning that more herdsmen are taking up more sophisticated arms.

The commissioner said the air assault is “part of a broader strategy to dismantle criminal hideouts, weaken their networks and put an end to the cycle of killings, kidnappings, and extortion that have plagued innocent citizens.”

The West African country is also dealing with an insurgency in its northeast region that has resulted in the death of around 35,000 civilians and the displacement of more than 2 million others, according to the United Nations.

Also on Saturday, separate airstrikes in the northwest of Nigeria killed 35 militants in a targeted attack.

Despite the efforts by the government of President Bola Tinubu to curb jihadi attacks, the militancy has persisted.