The ambush in Katsina State on Saturday left at least 16 soldiers and officers dead and 28 others injured.
Special Army Super Camp 4 troops advanced on foot in Shimfida, Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State, at around 6:13 p.m. On Saturday, when armed insurgents opened fire on them from the hilltop, military sources said.
The officers killed in the attack included a major, a captain, and a lieutenant, according to military sources. Two bandits were also injured in the exchanges, officials said.
When contacted, the military spokesperson, Sagir Musa, said that he could neither confirm nor comment on the attack as he heard it for the first time.
Katsina, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari in northwest Nigeria, has witnessed a series of attacks by armed militants.
In Katsina State, over 2,000 people have been killed, 500 communities destroyed and over 33,000 people displaced, a 2020 report by the West Africa Network for Peace building said.
President Buhari, after scores of residents of the Katsina community blocked the highway to protest the incessant attacks by armed bandits in May, vowed a massive military assault to rid the state of gangsters and kidnappers.
“A major proactive operation by Special Forces, which details are being kept secret, is now in progress to replace the reactive strikes against insurgent camps,” presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said in a statement then.
“To give a full effect to the exercise, a planning team is already in the state selecting targets and making preparations for the execution of the “unprecedented” operation.”
However, notwithstanding the assurances, attacks on military camps and civilians have continued in the state since then.
However, soldiers of the Special Army Super Camp 4, Faskari, operating under the Sahel Sanity Exercise, reported killing dozens of criminals.
A fortnight ago, the Defense Headquarters reported killing 46 bandits in the Yar Gamji town in the Batsari Local Government Area of Katsina State. This is even as it killed another six this week while also foiling attempts to loot livestock in Katsina and Zamfara states.
