By Newsmata
The Nigerian Air Force has expressed “grave concern” over the reported killing of at least 16 civilians in Zamfara State in military air strikes and has despatched a team of investigators to the state to unravel what happened.
The victims, said to be members of the local vigilante groups and civilians keeping watch over the community to repel bandits who raid and kidnap for ransom at will, were reportedly mistaken for terrorists.
The state governor, Dauda Lawal has commiserated with the community and families affected by the air strikes targeted at militant gangs in Zurmi and Maradun areas.
The military authorities have also acknowledged conducting air strikes, which it said had dealt “a decisive blow to bandits terrorising villages in the area”.
The missiles were launched in Tungar Kara, Zurmi local government area of the state.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said it was investigating “reports of vigilante losses”.
In a statement, NAF said “While the operation successfully eliminated several bandits and led to the recovery of some kidnap victims, the NAF views with grave concern reports of the loss of civilian lives in the course of the operation”.
While stating that an ongoing “comprehensive investigation” would ascertain the truth of the matter”, the statement said this would be “communicated to inform and reassure the public”.
Meanwhile, a statement by Olusola Akinboyewa, NAF’s director of public relations and information, said the chief of air staff, (CAS) Hasan Abubakar, has constituted a team led by Edward Gabkwet, director of coordination and cooperation at NAF’s civil-military relations branch to investigate the tragic incident and ascertain the number of casualties.
Human Rights watchdog, Amnesty International Nigeria, put the death toll at 20, saying dozens of others were injured in the attack on Tunga Kara village, and called on authorities to “immediately and impartially” investigate the incident.
Amnesty International insisted in its statement that “Launching air raids is not a legitimate law enforcement method by anyone’s standard. Such reckless use of deadly force is unlawful, outrageous and lays bare the Nigerian military’s shocking disregard for the lives of those it supposedly exists to protect”.
Newsmata recalls that there had been several accidental air strikes of recent, notably a Christmas Day attack that killed at least 10 civilians in neighbouring Sokoto State.
In 2023, at least 85 civilians, mostly women and children, attending a Muslim religious gathering at a village in Kaduna State were killed after they were mistaken for bandits.
In January 2017, at least 112 people were killed when a jet struck a camp housing 40,000 people who had been displaced by terrorists’ attacks in a town near the Cameroonian border.