At least 16 civilians in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state have been killed in a military airstrike, apparently after being mistaken for criminal gangs.
Residents told local media that the victims were members of local vigilante groups and civilians defending themselves against armed gangs notorious for kidnapping people for ransom.
The attacks targeted militant gangs in Zurmi and Maradun areas and the state governor, Dauda Lawal, offered his condolences to the community.
The army has admitted carrying out airstrikes, which it said “delivered a decisive blow to bandits terrorizing villages in the area”.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said it was investigating “reports of vigilante losses”.
“While the operation successfully eliminated several bandits and led to the recovery of some kidnapping victims, the NAF views with great concern reports of loss of civilian lives during the operation,” the NAF said in a statement.
It said an ongoing “extensive investigation” would establish the truth of the matter, which would “be communicated to inform and reassure the public”.
The AFP news agency quoted a local resident as saying that civilians were returning to their villages after chasing away bandits when they were bombed.
The villagers “recovered 16 bodies from the attacks and took several other people to hospital with serious injuries,” Sa’idu Ibrahim said.
Rights group Amnesty International Nigeria put the death toll at 20 and said dozens of others were injured in the attack on Tunga Kara village, calling on authorities to investigate the incident “immediately and impartially”.
“Launching airstrikes is not a legitimate law enforcement method by anyone’s standards. Such reckless use of lethal force is unlawful, outrageous and exposes the Nigerian military’s shocking disregard for the lives of those it is supposedly designed to protect,” the report said. .
In recent years, Nigerian security forces have been battling powerful criminal gangs, known as bandits, terrorizing the north-west and central states. The bandits invade villages, burn houses and kill and kidnap residents for ransom.
Several accidental airstrikes have occurred in recent months, including a Christmas Day attack that killed at least 10 civilians in neighboring Sokoto state.
In 2023, at least 85 civilians, mostly women and children, attending an Islamic religious gathering in a village in Kaduna State were killed after being mistaken for bandits.
In January 2017, at least 112 people were killed when a plane hit a camp housing 40,000 people displaced by jihadist violence in a town near the border with Cameroon.
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