Bandits kill 7 Nigerien soldiers, 3 villagers, abduct 17 others in Katsina

No fewer than 10 persons, including seven Nigerien soldiers, were reportedly killed on Tuesday as bandits attacked Batsari and Kadobe communities in Katsina State.

The bandits also abducted 17 people, including eight Islamiyya school pupils and a teacher, in Batsari town.

A resident of Batsari told our reporter that one of the victims, who was his aunt, died of cardiac arrest due to the gunshots by the bandits.

The resident further said the other two villagers died from stray bullets; one from the gunmen and the other from security men that engaged the bandits.

He said, “By the time the bandits came to Batsari, we learnt that the security men were at Dankar village, which was surrounded by bandits,” adding that eight persons were abducted by the gunmen during the attack.

Daily Trust was told that the

Sakkai school pupils and their teacher were abducted while conducting an evening lesson in the school premises on Tuesday.

Earlier on Monday, about seven Nigerien soldiers were reportedly killed and some others missing at Kadobe village about four kiometres from Kukar Babangida village of Jibia LGA.

Residents of the area told Daily

Trust that about 500 gunmen on more than a hundred motorbikes stormed the village.

When contacted, the Katsina spokesman of the police, SP Gambo Isah, said he would contact the DPO in Batsari for confirmation, and noted that he could not comment on the Faskari incident as the military was in charge of the area.