Gunmen Kill 11 Nigerian Troops
Gunmen Kill 11 Nigerian
Troops
Gunmen killed 10
Nigerian soldiers and an officer in central Benue state, the army said on
Friday.
It was not immediately
clear who was behind the attack but Benue is part of Nigeria's middle belt
region, where gangs have taken up arms after years of communal clashes between
herders and farmers.
"Nigerian Army troops operating in
Benue State came under attack while on routine operational task," army
spokesman Mohammed Yerima said in a statement.
The violence in the
region marked the latest bout of instability in Nigeria, Africa's most-populous
nation.
On Monday, heavily armed
gunman freed more than 1,800 prisoners in the southeast, while armed gangs have
kidnapped hundreds of school children in the northwest in recent months and
militants in the northeast have waged a decade-long insurgency.
