Two Soldiers Killed, Three Injured in Gun Duel with Pirates

By Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

The Nigerian military on Thursday suffered yet another loss in its fight against criminalities in the oil-rich Niger Delta, following the killing of two of its soldiers in the creeks around the boundary between Rivers and Bayelsa States.

During the exchange of gunfire, it was learnt that three soldiers also sustained severe injuries and are currently receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital.

Military authorities operating under the Joint Task Force , Operation Delta Safe, disclosed that the deceased operatives were responding to a distress call that pirates were raiding commuters along the waterways of Ijawkiri, a community bordering both states.

They reportedly came under heavy fire during a rescue operation to free the traders from the pirates, resulting in the death of the two soldiers and injuries to three others.

Spokesman of the JTF in the region, Major Abubakar Abdullahi, stated in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, that an intense manhunt had begun to apprehend the fleeing pirates.

Details later…