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| Africa Subsaharan | |
| Military drone strike accidentally kills 85 civilians celebrating a Muslim festival in Nigeria | |
| 2023-12-06 | |
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday ordered an investigation after the army acknowledged one of its drones aimed at armed groups had accidently struck the Tudun Biri village on Sunday as residents were celebrating a Muslim festival. The army did not give any casualty figures, but local residents had said 85 people, many of them women and children, had been killed. 'The Northwest Zonal Office has received details from the local authorities that 85 dead bodies have so far been buried while search is still ongoing,' National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said in a statement. NEMA said another 66 people were being treated at hospital, but emergency officials were still negotiating with community leaders to calm tensions to be able reach the village. Nigeria's armed forces often rely on air strikes in their battle against bandit militias in the northwest and northeast of the country, where jihadists have been fighting for more than a decade. The army had said its drone was a routine mission that 'inadvertently affected members of the community'. Many of the victims were women, children and elderly who had been celebrating the Muslim festival of Maulud. 'I was inside the house when the first bomb was dropped... We rushed to the scene to help those affected and then a second bomb was dropped,' local resident Idris Dahiru told AFP. Militia gangs have long terrorised parts of northwest Nigeria, operating from bases deep in forests and raiding villages to loot and kidnap residents for ransom. In the northeast, jihadists have been pushed back from the territory they held at the height of the conflict, though they continue to fight on in rural areas. More than 40,000 people have been killed and two million displaced since 2009 in that conflict. Related: Kaduna State: 2023-10-01 Terrorists Kill One, Abduct 19 Residents, Mostly Women From Southern Kaduna Community Kaduna State: 2023-09-14 Taliban Have Detained Two Bamiyan Residents Over Resisting To Give Their Lands To Kuchi Nomads Kaduna State: 2023-09-03 Terrorists Attack Mosque In Kaduna State, Gun Down Several Worshippers | |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 a routine mission that 'inadvertently affected members of the community' When a festival looks like a riot. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-12-06 07:07 |