It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack but Benue is part of Nigeria's middle belt region, where gangs have taken up arms after years of communal clashes between herders and farmers.

"Nigerian Army troops operating in Benue State came under attack while on routine operational task," army spokesman Mohammed Yerima said in a statement, which gave no details of the time of the incident.

The army said they were trying to track down the perpetrators.

Community leaders condemned the killings, promising to cooperate with the army in finding the attackers.

"We condemn the killing of the 11 soldiers by miscreants who have been terrorising our communities for years," Chief Edward Ujege, former president of ethnic Tiv group told AFP.

"The soldiers were on a lawful mission trying to secure the communities when they were ambushed," he said, before warning against reprisal attacks.

"We are appealing to the army to stop their reprisals on innocent communities who have been suffering as a result of the activities of the miscreants."

Local media said several Tiv villages had been razed by troops to avenge the killings of the soldiers.

Last month, Benue state governor Samuel Ortom said he had escaped an attack by armed herders while travelling in a convoy.

Deadly clashes between nomadic herders and farmers over land, grazing and water have plagued parts of central Nigeria for years.

Nigeria's security forces are battling on several fronts -- a more than decade-long jihadist insurgency in the northeast, criminal kidnapping gangs in the northwest and a separatist militia in the southeast.