A Nigerian military airstrike in the country’s northwest has reportedly killed at least 20 civilians, three residents confirmed on Monday.
The victims were a group of local vigilantes who were pursuing a criminal gang in Zamfara state over the weekend.
The Nigerian army has not yet commented on the incident. This marks the latest in a series of air campaign errors that have claimed hundreds of civilian lives in recent years as Nigeria battles various armed groups and criminal gangs known as “bandits.”
According to residents, bandits had attacked Mani and Wabi villages in Maru district, stealing cattle and kidnapping dozens of people.
Residents from nearby Maraya village and surrounding communities then mobilised to track the bandits and free the hostages.
However, a military jet deployed to assist the community reportedly mistook these volunteers for the criminals and bombed them between Maraya and Wabi.
“We were hit by a double tragedy on Saturday,” said resident Buhari Dangulbi. “Dozens of our people and several cows were taken by bandits, and those who trailed the bandits to rescue them were bombed by a fighter jet. It killed 20 of them.”
Bandits have terrorised Nigeria’s northwest for years, operating in largely ungoverned rural areas with primarily economic motivations, unlike the terrorist groups in the northeast.
Military bombing campaigns targeting both types of groups have frequently resulted in civilian casualties, with Saturday’s incident being the third of its kind in Zamfara state.
Amnesty International Nigeria has called for a transparent investigation into the incident, stating on X that “Attacks by bandits warrant a response from the state, but to launch reckless air strikes into villages—again and again—is unlawful.”
Other residents, Ishiye Kabiru and Alka Tanimu, corroborated the death toll of 20 and similar details, with Tanimu adding, “We will still have to pay to get those kidnapped back while the cows are gone for good.”
This incident follows previous deadly airstrikes, including one in January that killed at least 16 vigilantes in Zamfara, over 100 civilians in Mutunji village in December 2022, and 10 in Sokoto state in December last year.
Notably, in December 2023, a Nigerian military airstrike tragically mistook a religious gathering for bandits in Kaduna state, killing at least 85, mostly women and children. A similar incident in January 2017 claimed at least 112 lives at a camp for displaced people in Rann.
