WITHIN NIGERIA has compiled other similar cases of Jilli Market bombing, all of which were results of the military’s ‘accidental’ attacks on civilians due to operational oversight, wrong information and hazy intelligence.
On Saturday, the Nigerian Air Force conducted airstrikes on Yobe and Borno as part of the military offensive to rout terrorists and insurgents in the country. However, what was supposed to be a routine bombing of terrorist targets and criminal elements became a massacre of civilians.
The airstrikes were carried out on a weekly market located along the border between Yobe and Borno state. Within Nigeria had reported that no fewer than fifty civilians were killed in the airstrikes. Subsequent media reports put the death toll at nearly 200.
Fourteen other persons were also hospitalised after the tragic incident which occurred at Jilli Market. The market is along the border of Borno and Yobe states. It is situated between the Gubio Local Government Area in Borno and the Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe. The airstrikes were carried out at peak trading hours when the market was teeming with traders and buyers who had come from far and nearby communities to engage in business and commercial activities
Jilli Market airstrikes are not the first time the Nigerian Army has bombed a gathering of civilians while in pursuit of terrorists and insurgents. Since terrorism became an unsettling menace to our national lives, our army’s effort to rid the nation of this hydra-headed monster and cankerworm is replete with accidental bombing of defenceless and innocent Nigerians.
Within Nigeria has found and compiled other similar cases of Jilli Market bombing, all of which were results of the military’s ‘accidental’ attacks on civilians due to operational oversight, wrong information and hazy intelligence.
BORNO: MARCH 2014
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) while conducting airstrikes on Boko Haram enclaves in the Sambisa forest bombed Daglun village in Borno State. Many civilians were killed in the process.
Local sources confirmed the incident but the Nigerian military debunked claims that civilians were killed in the air operation.
Ali Ndume, a senator representing the region at the time, said the military plane “mistook the village for a Boko Haram camp”.
BORNO: JANUARY 2017
Again in January 2017, an internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp at Rann, a Borno State town located near the border with Cameroon, came under an intense aerial bombardment by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).
According to a media report, no fewer than 112 people were killed and many others were wounded as a result of the air strike.
The operation was carried out on the orders of Maj Gen Lucky Irabor, the then commander of the military’s counterinsurgency operations in the northeast, based on intelligence that Boko Haram insurgents had converged in the Kala-Balge LGA, where Rann is located.
The military would later apologise for the incident with Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, the spokesman for the military at the time, admitting that it was a mistake as they only acted on information about the movement of terrorists in the area.
ZAMFARA: APRIL 2019
In April 2019, six children and seventeen other civilians were killed in an airstrike on Tangaram, Zamfara State. The aircraft that carried out the airstrikes was said to be providing aerial support for ground troops who were engaging terrorists and other criminal elements terrorising the area.
BORNO: SEPTEMBER 2021
In September 2021, four years after the airstrike on an IDP camp in Borno which claimed the lives of many displaced persons, the village of Kwatar Daban Masara on Lake Chad was bombed.
No fewer than 20 fishermen were killed and several others were injured when the military accidentally hit the village.
According to a local who spoke to the media in confidence, the military’s action was driven by “credible intelligence” about the presence of jihadists in the village.
YOBE: SEPTEMBER 2022
At least ten people were killed and twenty wounded when the air force hit Buhari village in Yobe State in September 2022.
The military admitted to the accidental bombing of civilians after initially denying that it carried out the attack. According to Edward Gabkwet, spokesperson at the time, the involved fighter jet was dispatched to respond to the suspected terrorist activities in the area along the Nigeria/Niger border.
“The aircraft, while operating south of Kanama, observed suspicious movement consistent with Boko Haram terrorists’ behaviour whenever a jet aircraft is overhead,” he said.
“Accordingly, the pilot fired some probing shots. It is important to state that the area is well known for continuous Boko Haram /ISWAP activities. Unfortunately, reports reaching Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Headquarters alleged that some civilians were erroneously killed while others were injured.”
KATSINA: JULY 2022
Many villagers were killed in Katsina state when a NAF fighter jet unintentionally bombed Kunkuna in the Safana LGA of Katsina State.
The jet reportedly bombed the innocent and vulnerable villagers in the operation launched against the camps of bandits in July 2022.
KADUNA: NOVEMBER 2023
In Tudun Biri village in the Igabi Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State, NAF bombed Villagers who had gathered for the celebration of Maulud, the birthday of prophet Maulud.
At least 85 civilians were killed and several others injured in the air strike on the gathering which the army later claimed was a mistake.
A statement shared on Monday by Samuel Aruwan, the overseeing commissioner of the ministry of internal security and home affairs in the state, revealed that “the Nigerian Army was on a routine mission against terrorists but inadvertently affected members of the community”.
Over one thousands civilians have been killed by military air strikes in the last decade.
