Civilians have been caught within the crossfire and killed in army air strikes geared toward militants, although the authorities typically dispute hitting civilians.
Africa’s most populous nation has been preventing a jihadist insurgency for 17 years, since Boko Haram’s 2009 rebellion, which has seen the emergence of highly effective splinter teams, together with Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
A UN safety memo seen by AFP, acknowledged that “4 Nigerian Air Pressure (NAF) fighter jets launched airstrikes that mistakenly killed at the very least 56 individuals and injured 14 others on the Jilli market… on April 11.”
“This occurred throughout a army operation concentrating on Boko Haram fighters who visited the market to conduct terrorism actions,” it stated.
Amnesty Worldwide earlier stated on X that there have been “greater than 100 useless” and 35 individuals critically wounded.
Native chief Lawan Zanna Nur, in the meantime, stated: “The overall casualties, useless and injured, are round 200.”
MILITARY SAY AIR STRIKE SUCCESSFUL
Nigeria’s army stated it had “efficiently carried out a precision air strike on a identified terrorist enclave and logistics hub situated close to the deserted village of Jilli”.
It stated “scores of terrorists” had been killed within the strike, however didn’t point out any civilian casualties.
In a separate assertion, the air pressure stated it had launched an investigation following studies that its airstrike “could have affected a neighborhood market in Jilli, leading to civilian casualties”.
This strike is the most recent in a collection of such incidents within the north of the nation.
In January 2025, a army airstrike killed at the very least 16 individuals in northwestern Zamfara state after a military jet mistook native vigilantes for legal gangs.
A month earlier, a army jet killed 10 individuals when it hit villages whereas bombing jihadist positions in neighbouring Sokoto state.
In December 2023, a Nigerian army airstrike mistook a Muslim spiritual gathering for bandits in Kaduna state, killing at the very least 85 individuals.
And in January 2017, at the very least 112 individuals had been killed when a fighter jet struck a camp housing 40,000 individuals displaced by jihadist violence close to the border with Cameroon.
BOKO HARAM, ISWAP INCREASE ATTACKS
Jihadist violence had slowed from its peak in round 2015, however Boko Haram and ISWAP have lately elevated assaults in northeastern Nigeria, vying to determine a caliphate.
They’ve additionally ramped up their assaults on the army, overrunning bases and killing troopers.
Northwestern components are gripped by legal gangs – regionally referred to as bandits – that raid villages and extort farmers and artisanal miners and kill.
Nigeria is going through worldwide scrutiny over its safety state of affairs, together with stress from US President Donald Trump, who ordered bombardments on Islamists militants final Christmas.
Early this 12 months, the USA started deploying 200 troops to Nigeria to offer technical and coaching assist to troopers in preventing jihadist teams.
