No less than 16 regular people were killed in a tactical air strike in the northwestern Nigerian territory of Zamfara after a pilot confused nearby self-protection powers with groups of hoodlums, occupants told AFP on Sunday.
The occurrence was the second dangerous unplanned airstrike to target regular folks since the December 25 besieging of two towns in a strike focusing on jihadists in adjoining Sokoto state.
Nigeria's military has been battling groups of thugs, referred to locally as outlaws, who have long threatened networks in northwestern and focal Nigeria.
The contenders strike towns, kill and steal inhabitants for payoff and consume homes subsequent to stealing from them.
Late on Saturday, a tactical stream hit a gathering of occupants who prepared from a few adjoining towns to face shooters who had gone after Dangebe town in Zurmi region, trucking away animals and consuming homes, occupants said.
“The group was returning to their villages after chasing away the bandits who attacked Dangebe when the fighter jet bombed them on reaching Tungar Kara village,” said one local, Sa’idu Ibrahim.
He said villagers “recovered 16 bodies from the attacks and took several other people with severe injuries to the hospital”.
Occupants of Dangebe had called around 15 adjoining towns requesting help against cruiser riding shooters who raged the town, consuming their homes and taking their domesticated animals, said Bube Namare, another nearby inhabitant.
“Sixteen bodies have been found but the toll may go up as (the) search for more bodies is going on this morning,” Namare said.
Lieutenant-Colonel Abubakar Abdullahi, military spokesman for troops in the region did not respond to an AFP inquiry into the incident.
Amnesty International put the death toll at 20. In a statement on Sunday, the rights watchdog called on Nigerian authorities to “immediately and impartially investigate the… airstrike that killed at least 20 people at Tungar Kara village”.
There have been a few comparable occurrences in the past of bombings of regular folks in the tactical's fight against jihadists and criminals in the upper east and northwest.
In December 2023, a Nigerian military airstrike confused a Muslim strict social event with criminals in Tudun Biri people group in northwestern Kaduna state, killing no less than 85 individuals, for the most part ladies and youngsters.
In January 2017, no less than 112 individuals were killed when a contender fly struck a camp lodging 40,000 individuals uprooted by jihadist savagery in the town of Rann close to the line with Cameroon.
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