No fewer than 21 military personnel including senior officers were reportedly killed by the suspected bandits at Kundu via Zungeru in the Wushishi Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger state.

It was gathered that 13 of them were killed in an encounter on Sunday, while eight others were killed on Monday in an ambush in which a captain and a major were reportedly involved.

According to reports, the security operatives were trying to block the Kundu route of the criminals who were about to cross with some rustled cattle when they were ambushed, leading to the casualties including five vigilantes who were injured with bullets.

It was reliably gathered that the bandits had rustled several animals from several communities and tried to cross from Akere to the northern parts of the country.

An eyewitness told Channels Television that the corpses of the 21 military personnel were deposited at the same Zungeru hospital where the injured vigilante group were receiving medical treatment.

An injured vigilante, Sani Adamu, in a phone interview, said they had a gun battle within a range of less than 100m but they were challenged because the criminals’ weapons were more sophisticated than theirs, leading to casualties.