At least eight security personnel, including five police officers and three soldiers, have been killed in Zamfara state after their ammunition ran out during a gun battle with bandits on the Tazame-Yandoto highway in Kotorkoshi District, Bungudu Local Government Area, FIJ can report.
At about 7 am on Thursday, a military unit escorting Setraco Construction Company personnel to a site was ambushed, heavily armed bandits, reportedly in large numbers, attacking the convoy.
“The soldiers sent a distress call to a police Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) stationed at a pin-down point in Tazame Village,” a security source told FIJ.
“Upon receiving the report, a team of CTU personnel stationed at a pin-down point at Tazame Village responded to the distress call and entered into the ambush. After a prolonged exchange of fire, the team ran out of ammunition due to the large number of bandits.”
Five police officers — four from the CTU and one from the Police Mobile Force (PMF) — were killed.
The fallen police officers were identified Murtala Ahmed, Sani Abdullahi, Akilu Isah, Kabiru Halliru, and Junaidu Abubakar. Three soldiers also lost their lives in the battle, but FIJ hasn’t yet ascertained their identities.
The bandits made away with four serviceable rifles, including AK-47s, from the fallen officers.
FIJ obtained a video of the aftermath of the attack but cannot publish due to its goriness.
In the video, soldiers, one of whom was inconsolable, can be seen mourning their slain colleagues, with the bodies of three military personnel, all with gunshot wounds, visible on the ground.
The ambush adds to a series of violent attacks by bandits in Zamfara, a state that has been a hotspot for banditry in recent years.
In 2022, terrorists imposed a N5 million levy on residents of Tazame, the same community where Thursday’s attack occurred. Zamfara has one of the highest rates of kidnap-for-ransom incidents in Nigeria, according to a 2023 report by SB Morgen.
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