Abuja:
Gunmen killed 10 soldiers and an officer in the central Nigerian state of Benue, the army stated today.
It was not promptly clear who was behind the attack but Benue is aspect of Nigeria’s middle belt area, exactly where gangs have taken up arms immediately after years of communal clashes among herders and farmers.
“Nigerian Army troops operating in Benue State came under attack while on routine operational task,” army spokesman Mohammed Yerima stated in a statement, which gave no information of the time of the incident.
The army stated they have been attempting to track down the perpetrators.
Last month, Benue state governor Samuel Ortom stated he had escaped an attack by armed herders although travelling in a convoy.
Deadly clashes among nomadic Fulani herders and farmers more than land, grazing and water have plagued components of central Nigeria for years.
Nigeria’s safety forces are battling on various fronts — a more than decade-extended jihadist insurgency in the northeast, criminal gangs in the northwest and a separatist militia in the southeast.