At least 16 civilians in northwestern Nigeria were mistakenly killed in an air strike yesterday (Monday), after being mistaken for a hostile militia. On Sunday, Islamist terrorists killed at least 40 farmers in northeastern Nigeria. In a series of attacks by the jihadist terrorist organization Boko Haram, dozens have been killed across the country in recent weeks.
Residents in the state of Zamfara in northwestern Nigeria blamed the Nigerian Air Force for yesterday’s attack, according to a report on the British BBC network. The residents told the local media that the victims were members of a civil defense group that was organized to protect their community from armed gangs that kidnap citizens for ransom.
The Nigerian army announced that it was “investigating the reports” of harming innocents, and admitted that it carried out airstrikes in the place where the civilians were killed, which it said were intended to give “a decisive blow to the bandits who terrorized villages in the area”. The governor of the state, Dauda Lawal, expressed his condolences to the community.
At least 40 farmers have been killed in an attack on the Dombe community in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria, according to a senior official in the country. It is suspected that terrorists from Boko Haram, affiliated to the ISIS organization in West Africa, carried out the massacre. Boko Haram is a brutal jihadist organization that has been terrorizing the citizens of northeastern Nigeria since 2009, and has led to the murder of thousands of people and the displacement of millions, most of them Christians. The perpetrators of the massacre were not caught.
The governor of Borno, Banda Omra Zolum, attributed the attack to terrorists from Boko Haram, or to members of a known gang linked to the murderous jihad organization, which also operates as part of ISIS in West Africa. Zolum called on the Nigerian government to investigate the massacre and avenge his perpetrators.
“I assure the citizens of Borno that this matter will be thoroughly investigated. Determined action is needed,” Zolum said. “Let me take this opportunity to call on the security forces to find and deal with the perpetrators of this heinous violence against our innocent citizens.”
He warned civilians to stay in “safe areas” that the army had cleared of terrorists, according to a report in German news agency DW. The country’s information commissioner, Osman Tarr, said the farmers were working outside such a security corridor, and had gone to an area known to be home to terrorists and to have minefields.
Last Thursday, at least 21 fighters from a local government-backed force were killed in an ambush by bandits in Katsina county state in northwestern Nigeria, according to authorities.
The Katsina police spokesman, Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu, told the AFP news agency on Saturday that a convoy of pro-government fighters carrying mourners was ambushed in the village of Bauer in the Safana governorate. “Unfortunately, 21 people were shot to death,” Aliyu said, adding that the police are seeking to “ensure the arrest of the perpetrators of the attack,” according to a report in the DW news agency.
At the beginning of this month, Boko Haram killed six soldiers from the Nigerian army in the state of Borno. Major General Edward Buba said the army killed 34 Islamist terrorists in a shootout in which six soldiers also died. According to him, the militants belonged to the Boko Haram and ISIS groups in West Africa.