MAIDUGURI — Attackers killed at least eight security personnel in an ambush on a police convoy in Nigeria's northwestern Zamfara state on Tuesday, November 3, local vigilante officials told Reuters, in a region where kidnappings and attacks by armed groups are common.

Source: Reuters

The dead included five police officers and three members of the Zamfara Community Protection Guard (CPG), a state-backed vigilante outfit that supports security operations, vigilante commandant Lawal Haruna told Reuters. Abubakar Isa, a member of the CPG, said the attackers struck near Gidan-Giye village in the Tsafe Local Government Area and fired on a 15-seater bus carrying the security team, destroying the vehicle.

Source: Reuters

In a police statement reported by Reuters, police said they later recovered the bodies of the five officers, rescued seven other personnel and evacuated two wounded officers for treatment, and that the attackers seized five AK-47 rifles. A separate police officer told Reuters the attackers abducted some officers and took them to an undisclosed location, though authorities had not yet confirmed how many personnel remained missing.

Source: Reuters

Team was travelling for election security duty, Nigerian reports say

Nigerian outlet Spectrum TV reported that the security team was travelling to provide security for an All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial primary election in the Zamfara North district, and that the personnel had been deployed from neighbouring Sokoto state for the assignment. Zamfara State Police spokesman Yazid Abubakar confirmed that officers from Sokoto had been sent to the state but did not provide a detailed casualty figure, Spectrum TV reported. Spectrum placed the attack near Gidan Kano, on the highway linking Zamfara and Sokoto — a location name that differs from the Gidan-Giye village named by the CPG member speaking to Reuters.

Source: Spectrum TV Nigeria

Zamfara's long-running bandit violence

Zamfara, in Nigeria's northwest, has for years been one of the states worst hit by armed groups — widely referred to in Nigeria as bandits — who raid villages, ambush travellers and security forces, and carry out kidnappings for ransom, a pattern Reuters noted in describing the state as a region where kidnappings and attacks are common. Tuesday's ambush, on a team reported to be travelling for election duty, underlines how exposed even reinforced security convoys remain on the state's highways.

Source: Reuters

What happens next: the missing-person count, if any, and the identity of the attackers had not been officially confirmed in the reports available on Tuesday. Nigerian police and Zamfara authorities are expected to issue further statements as the rescued and wounded personnel are accounted for and as security operations in the Tsafe area continue.