Troops pulled 27 people out of the hands of kidnappers in Sokoto and Zamfara this week, across three separate operations in two days. It’s a good outcome, and a real one. It also happened after the danger had already started.

Troops from Operation FANSAN YAMMA rescued 27 kidnap victims and foiled several abduction attempts across Sokoto and Zamfara between 20 and 21 July. Three things happened, fast, one after another. At Kaura community in Shagari local government, troops engaged suspected terrorists in a gun battle and rescued six people, recovering livestock and two motorcycles. Near Badanma in Gandi local government, ten more kidnap victims escaped their captors on their own. They were found wandering in the bush before troops and the local Community Guard Corps got to them. On the Gummi-Sokoto highway, armed men blocked the road trying to grab commuters, and Combat Team 12 chased them down and freed eleven people.

Every one of those numbers is a family that got their person back this week. That matters, and it shouldn’t be waved away just to make a point.

But look at the shape of all three operations. A gun battle after the kidnapping had already started. People who freed themselves before anyone official arrived. A highway ambush that troops responded to only once it was already happening. In every case, the state showed up strong once the danger was already live. In none of them did anything stop the danger from reaching that point.

The military says this is part of an ongoing offensive across the North West. Recent weeks have brought reports of bandit commanders killed and hideouts destroyed in Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and Kebbi. That’s real progress against the people doing the kidnapping. It doesn’t answer why commuters are still being ambushed on a named highway in the first place. It doesn’t explain why armed men can still block a road long enough to grab eleven people before help arrives.

Twenty seven people are safe tonight because soldiers responded fast and well. The bar for a functioning state shouldn’t just be a fast response. It should also be fewer roads where this keeps happening at all.