Eight security personnel, including five policemen and three members of the Community Protection Guards, have been killed in a deadly ambush by armed bandits along the Gusau–Funtua highway in Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
The incident occurred on Thursday evening near Gidan-Giye village, a few kilometres from Tsafe town, when the assailants, who had laid in wait in nearby bushes, opened fire on a police patrol vehicle.
Witnesses said all eight personnel in the patrol team died instantly in the attack. “The bandits suddenly opened fire on the patrol team. All the policemen and guards died instantly before the attackers fled on motorcycles into the forest,” a resident, Ya’u Musa, told reporters.
The bodies of the victims were later evacuated to the Federal Medical Centre in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital.
Local officials disclosed that the slain personnel were attached to the Zamfara State Government House and had been deployed to the Gusau–Funtua Road to safeguard commuters following a surge in bandit attacks in the area.
Confirming the incident, Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, described the killing as a devastating blow to the state’s ongoing efforts to restore peace.
“I just received the sad news of the death of eight security personnel—comprising policemen and Community Protection Guards—who were ambushed and killed by bandits along the Gusau–Funtua Road,” the governor wrote in a statement on his official Facebook page. “May Allah forgive their shortcomings and grant their families the strength to bear the loss.”
Zamfara, along with other states in northwestern Nigeria, continues to grapple with worsening insecurity as armed groups—commonly referred to as bandits—carry out frequent attacks, abduct residents for ransom, and target security operatives in their campaign of violence across the region.
