Erroneous airstrikes by the Nigerian military have killed worshippers, herders and refugees

Last week, two drone strikes in northern Nigeria killed at least 85 people celebrating an Islamic holiday in a village. In June, dozens of herders and their livestock were hit from the air in the state next to the country’s capital. And in 2017, about 100 people were killed in an airstrike on a refugee camp in the northeast of the country.

As the Nigerian military wages an internal war against extremist militants and armed gangs, its widespread use of airstrikes on its own territory has been accompanied by a cascade of more than a dozen accidents that security forces say have killed hundreds of civilians in the past six years. analysts.

The repeated mistakes raise pressing questions for the United States, which trains and equips Nigeria’s military and views Nigeria as a key ally in a region of Africa marred by widespread insecurity and coups.

The December 3 attack on a village where hundreds of worshipers gathered overnight for a festive Muslim holiday underlined the shortcomings of West Africa’s largest army. Analysts say the problems include mismanagement, poor intelligence collection and a lack of coordination between the various branches of the country’s security apparatus.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has for years faced multiple security threats at once, from Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast to armed gangs throughout the north known locally as bandits, who rob, kill or kidnap citizens for ransom . The northern state of Kaduna, where the attack on the village took place, is a major target of these gangs.

“The fundamental problem that American and Nigerian leaders refuse to acknowledge is that combat air power – drones, fighter jets – is not a police tool,” said Matthew Page, a former State Department expert on Nigeria and now a associate fellow at Chatham House. a British research group.

“Western democracies do not use aerial bombardments as a policing tool at home, and this is why: because they cause disproportionate damage,” he said.

The Nigerian military did not respond to questions about systemic problems. But Christopher Gwabin Musa, Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, did speak about the bombing at the celebration last week. He called it a “sad and unfortunate incident” that occurred because the military had been tipped off and had observed movements that resembled a terrorist attack.

While many in Nigeria have become accustomed to these accidental killings, analysts say the attack on Tudun Biri, a village in Kaduna, was one too many.

Protesters stormed the National Assembly last week. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria called for “a thorough and full investigation” to an attack he described as ‘unacceptable’. The military quickly admitted responsibility, saying it had mistaken the crowd of civilians for a gathering of terrorists.

“They were Nigerians of deep faith and at the moment of the tragedy they were reciting the Shahada,” Mr Tinubu said at a military conference on Monday, referring to the Islamic declaration of faith. “May their souls rest in eternal peace.”

But two residents said in interviews that police and local authorities were aware of the gathering for the religious celebration. And residents said there was a second strike shortly after the first, just as they rushed to rescue the victims, a claim echoed in testimony collected by human rights organizations.

Hundreds of worshipers had gathered in Tudun Biri’s central square that Sunday, setting up canopies and loudspeakers and installing mats and chairs for the religious holiday of Mawlid. Many had been unable to find shelter and planned to spend the night in the square.

Ahmadu Musa, a 37-year-old farmer, said he had left the party early to rest from a stomach infection when he heard a plane hovering over his village, followed by a loud bang that felt like an earthquake.

Seeing billowing smoke and a thick fire, Mr. Musa rushed to the square, where one of his two wives, five children and many relatives were attending the celebration, he said. He found his wife and children dead, while other members of his family were recognizable only by their clothing and their bodies unrecognizable.

At least 85 people were killed, while dozens of others were injured, according to Nigeria’s main emergency response agency. The attack was the deadliest since 2017, when around 100 people were killed in the bombing of a camp with 40,000 refugees run by Doctors Without Borders.

Nigeria’s security forces have purchased attack drones from China and Turkey and increasingly resorted to airstrikes to target Boko Haram insurgents and criminal gangs, according to security analysts.

Before the attack this month, more than 300 people had been killed in airstrikes carried out by the Nigerian military since 2017, according to figures from SBM Intelligence, a Nigerian risk consultancy.

Analysts say there has been virtually no accountability.

“The military is given a lot of leeway given that Nigeria is ravaged by terrorists,” said Confidence MacHarry, a security analyst at SBM Intelligence. “The lack of accountability fuels the culture of impunity.”

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments, said an initial U.S. assessment found the Nigerian military drone used in the attack was Turkish-made. But Pentagon officials said they had no information about the incident and referred questions to the Nigerian military.

Two independent Nigerians analysis companies said the drone used was most likely Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2an attack drone popular in Ukraine and among several African militaries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, among others.

Nigerian soldiers have been training alongside African troops in Pentagon-sponsored exercises. And last year, the Biden administration approved one nearly $1 billion deal for attack helicopters with Nigeria.

But for more than a decade, U.S. officials have also regularly raised serious concerns about suspected human rights abuses by Nigerian forces. A general inspector’s report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs In 2013, for example, it emerged that of 1,377 Nigerian soldiers vetted the previous year to receive US training, 211 were rejected or suspended due to human rights concerns.

U.S. officials said they were encouraged by Mr. Tinubu’s call last week for an investigation into the strikes. But some former US diplomats and senior military officials expressed doubts that any senior official would be held accountable given the Nigerian military’s lack of transparency, or that better training would result.

Earlier this year, there were two members of Congress insisted the Biden administration has decided to cancel the helicopter deal with Nigeria, citing human rights violations forced abortions And random killings.

J. Peter Pham, a former U.S. special envoy to the Sahel region, which includes sub-Saharan countries, said the incident in Tudun Biri underscored the problems with arms purchases from vendors such as China and Turkey. The purchases, Mr. Pham said, “may be more readily available or cheaper, but are rarely accompanied by the intensive training that Western, especially American, packages entail.”

But Mr. Page, the former State Department analyst, argued that even as part of the nearly $1 billion helicopter deal, Nigeria had received far less training than initially advertised by American policymakers and diplomats.

During a visit to Tudun Biri last week, Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima pledged to build houses, schools and clinics. Some senators pledged to donate their December salaries to the community. But few expect long-lasting changes, said Mr. MacHarry, the security analyst.

In Tudun Biri, Mr Musa buried his wife and five children in the local cemetery a day after the strike. Victims who could not be identified were buried in a mass grave.

“We are picking up the remaining pieces of our lives,” Mr Musa said, adding that several families had left the village for fear of another attack.

Pius Adeleye contributed reporting from Ilorin, Nigeria.