Scores, Including 37 Security Personnel, Feared killed As Bandits Attack Mining Site In Niger State

Scores, including 37 security personnel, feared killed as bandits attack mining site in Niger State
Several people, including four Chinese nationals, were kidnapped in the attack.

Gunmen, believed to be bandits, killed at least 43 people including 30 soldiers and seven mobile police personnel in an attack on a mining site in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, local sources have said.

The Niger State Government, while confirming the attack, however, said the number of casualties is yet to be ascertained.

Residents said a search party found 37 bodies of soldiers and policemen in a bush near the mining site Thursday morning.

Six other corpses of civilians were also recovered from the bush.

The residents said many Chinese nationals and Nigerians were also abducted during the attack on the site on Wednesday.

Yusuf Kokki, the co-convener, Concerned Shiroro Youths, in a statement to PREMIUM TIMES, said residents witnessed the attack on the site by several heavily armed assailants.

“The deaths from the Ajata – Aboki massacre have risen astronomically as, at present, almost thirty soldiers have been discovered in the bush and confirmed dead,” Mr Kokki said.

He said resident expect to find more corpses as the search continues on Thursday morning.

Scores of others who sustained gunshot injuries (some in critical condition) have been taken to hospitals in the area for treatment.

Emmanuel Umar, Niger State commissioner for Internal Security and Humanitarian Affairs, while confirming the attack, said the intervention of the soldiers led to the rescue of several workers who were injured in the attack.

He, however, confirmed that four Chinese and several other workers were kidnapped by the bandits.

He said the government has sent reinforcement and security personnel are pursuing the bandits with the hope of rescuing those kidnapped