Military Attack in Error Kills at Least 100 in Nigerian Market

A Nigerian Air Force strike targeting jihadi rebels hit a local market in northeastern Nigeria, killing over 100 residents and injuring many others, a rights group and local media reported on Sunday. Officials confirmed a misfire but did not provide details. Amnesty International said it confirmed from survivors that at least 100 people were killed in the airstrike Saturday on a village in Yobe state near the border with Borno state, the epicenter of the jihadi insurgency that has ravaged the region for over a decade, the AP reports. Such misfires are common in Nigeria, where the military often conducts air raids to battle armed groups that control vast forest enclaves.

Security analysts point to loopholes in intelligence gathering as well as insufficient coordination between ground troops, air assets and stakeholders. The large, remote market where the strike occurred, located at the Borno-Yobe border, is known to be patronized by Boko Haram jihadis who go there to buy food supplies. The Nigerian military issued a statement saying it conducted a successful strike on a "terrorist enclave and logistics hub" belonging to jihadis in the area, killing scores of them as they rode on motorcycles. It did not provide any details about a possible misfire but noted that motorcycles remain prohibited in conflict hot spots and "any such movements in restricted areas are therefore treated with the utmost seriousness."

Abdulmumin Bulama, a member of a civilian security group working with the Nigerian military in the northeast, said there was intelligence that Boko Haram terrorists were gathering at a location close to the market and that it was believed they were planning an attack on nearby communities. "The intel was shared and the Air Force jet acted based on the credible information," the official said. The Yobe State Government confirmed in a statement that a Nigerian military strike was targeting a stronghold of the Boko Haram jihadi group in the area and that "some people … who went to the Jilli weekly market were affected." The Yobe State Emergency Management Agency said it had dispatched response teams to the area while urging the public to remain calm.