Benue : Troops repel gunmen, 5 feared dead

In Benue State, troops of the joint military operation with the code name, Operation Whirl Stroke, have reportedly killed five gunmen in Guma Local Government Area.

The troops were said to have acted in response to the distress call made by the authority of the local government over the invasion of three villages: Torkula, Kponko and Kaseyo.

It was reported that five of the invading gunmen were killed during the counterattack.

When contacted, the Force Commander of OPWS, Maj. Gen. Adeyemi Yekini, declined making a comment on the attack but referred our correspondent to the Defence Headquarters Information Directorate.

However, Benue State Command Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Catherine Anene, confirmed the incident.

She said that the command was yet to ascertain the number of casualties as of the time of filing this report.

Anene confirmed that the intervention of the joint military troops averted further attack on the affected areas.

Gunmen kill 30 in Burkina Faso attack

Gunmen killed around 30 people at a livestock market in the eastern Burkina Faso town of Kompienbiga. Local residents revealed that the attack was blamed by a security source on jihadists.

The assailants “burst into the market riding motorbikes and started shooting, especially at people who were trying to flee”, one resident said, estimating the death toll at around 30 from the attack.

A second resident said: “It’s hard to say how many people were killed. There were bodies in the market and others in the bush.”

But he added: “More than 30 bodies were collected” after the attack. He said his brother was at the market at the time and he had had “no news” from him since.

A local official put the death toll at “several dozen” including vendors and residents, while a security source said “armed terrorists” carried out the attack while declining to estimate how many were killed.

The attack came a day after a convoy of main shopkeepers escorted by a local self-defence unit came under fire in the north of the West African country, leaving 15 dead.

The bloodshed in Loroum province was also blamed on jihadists.

The east and north of the former French colony are the hardest hit by attacks by jihadists, who have killed more than 900 people and caused some 860,000 people to flee their homes in the past five years.

Burkina Faso’s armed forces are leading counter-terror operations with increasing frequency.

The impoverished Sahel country is part of a regional effort to battle an Islamist insurgency along with Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Chad.

Their militaries, under-equipped and poorly trained, are struggling despite help from France, which has 5,000 troops in the region.

Unrest in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger killed around 4,000 people last year, according to UN figures.

Sokoto : Gunmen kill over 60 people in three villages

Over 60 people were killed on Wednesday night when some gunmen attacked Garki, Katuma and Kuzari villages under Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State. 

Those, who sustained life-threatening injuries, are currently receiving treatment at General Hospital, Sabon Birni, according to residents, who spoke with news reporters. 

The number of people that died may rise as more corpses are being deposited at the mortuary of Sabon Birni General Hospital, it was discovered.

Frequent attacks by gunmen across the local government area has forced hundreds of people to flee their villages. 

On Monday, 18 people were killed in another attack at Faji, Lanjegu, Kadaye, Marakawa and Garin Ahmadu villages -- about 15 to 20 kilometres from Sabon Birni town. 

Some residents of the affected villages alleged that some of the armed attackers were herders, who used the occasion as their response to farmers' efforts to prevent them from destroying their farms by grazing their heard. 

Since the beginning of this year, a growing number of residents in Sabon Birni LGA have fled their homes while those, who had stayed back, had formed vigilante groups to protect their communities.

Gunmen demand N5m ransom for release of hostage

Yet-to-be identified gunmen have reportedly demanded N5m ransom for the release of a kidnapped businessman in Aba, the commercial nerve of Abia State.

The victim identified as Emeka was reportedly kidnapped at Umukalika off Obikabia junction in Obingwa Local Government Area of the state.

It was gathered that the kidnappers who had demanded N17m, demanded N15m and later came down to N5m.

Sources told our reporter that the gunmen after kidnapping the businessman abandoned his car; a Red Toyota Avalon in front of a compound, near the popular Ndiolumbe market in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area of the state.

It was learnt that people from the community including passersby wondering what could have caused the owners of the vehicle to abandon the car in the area alerted members of the community vigilante members.

Information has it that a family member of the victim disclosed that it was the abductors that told the family members where they abandoned the car.

The Omoba Divisional Police Station who arrived the scene on inspecting the car discovered that the abductors left the keys of the vehicle just as some life cartridges were seen inside the vehicle.

The recovered vehicle is said to be in the possession of the Omoba Police Station.