Most of the victims had been ladies, kids and aged (File)
Lagos:
A Nigerian military drone strike unintentionally killed no less than 85 civilians on Sunday in a village in northwest Kaduna State, officers stated, in one of many nation’s deadliest army bombing mishaps.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday ordered an investigation after the military acknowledged one among its drones aimed toward armed teams had unintentionally struck the Tudun Biri village as residents had been celebrating a Muslim pageant.
The military didn’t give any casualty figures, however native residents had stated 85 individuals, a lot of them ladies and kids, had been killed.
“The Northwest Zonal Workplace has obtained particulars from the native authorities that 85 useless our bodies have to this point been buried whereas search continues to be ongoing,” Nationwide Emergency Administration Company (NEMA) stated in a press release.
NEMA stated one other 66 individuals had been being handled at hospital, however emergency officers had been nonetheless negotiating with neighborhood leaders to calm tensions to give you the option attain the village.
Nigeria’s armed forces usually depend on air strikes of their battle towards bandit militias within the northwest and northeast of the nation, the place jihadists have been preventing for greater than a decade.
“President Tinubu describes the incident as very unlucky, disturbing, and painful, expressing indignation and grief over the tragic lack of Nigerian lives,” the presidency stated in a press release.
The military had stated its drone was a routine mission that “inadvertently affected members of the neighborhood”.
Most of the victims had been ladies, kids and aged who had been celebrating the Muslim pageant of Maulud.
“I used to be inside the home when the primary bomb was dropped… We rushed to the scene to assist these affected after which a second bomb was dropped,” native resident Idris Dahiru instructed AFP.
“My aunt, my brother’s spouse and her six kids, wives of my 4 brothers had been among the many useless. My elder brother’s household are all useless, besides his toddler youngster who survived.”
Militia gangs have lengthy terrorised components of northwest Nigeria, working from bases deep in forests and raiding villages to loot and kidnap residents for ransom.
Within the northeast, jihadists have been pushed again from the territory they held on the top of the battle, although they proceed to battle on in rural areas.
Greater than 40,000 individuals have been killed and two million displaced since 2009 in that battle.
Nigerian army bombing raids have accidently hit civilians up to now.
A minimum of 20 fishermen had been killed and several other injured in a September 2021 assault in Kwatar Daban Masara on Lake Chad within the northeast, when the army mistook them for militants.
In January 2017, no less than 112 individuals had been killed when a fighter jet struck a camp housing 40,000 individuals displaced by jihadist violence within the city of Rann close to the border with Cameroon.
The Nigerian army blamed “lack of acceptable marking of the realm” in a report issued six months later.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
