Nigerian Air Force jets mistakenly targeted local vigilantes pursuing armed bandits in Zamfara state over the weekend, killing at least 20 civilians in what human rights groups are calling another "reckless" military operation. Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame defended the strike as a response to intelligence about terrorist activity, but residents paint a dramatically different picture of the deadly incident.
According to Al Jazeera, the airstrike occurred in one of Nigeria's most violence-plagued regions where armed groups known as "bandits" regularly terrorize communities. Military officials claimed they were targeting terrorists who had killed farmers and abducted civilians, including women and children.
Zamfara state has become a focal point for Nigeria's ongoing security crisis, with frequent clashes between military forces, local vigilante groups, and heavily armed criminal gangs. The region's residents often rely on community self-defense groups when government security forces fail to protect them from bandit attacks that include cattle rustling, kidnapping, and mass killings.
Double tragedy strikes villages
Residents described a devastating sequence of events that began when bandits attacked the villages of Mani and Wabi in Maru district on Saturday. Dozens of people and several cows were taken during the initial raid, prompting local vigilantes to organize a rescue mission to recover the captives and stolen livestock.
Buhari Dangulbi, a resident of the affected area, explained the community's predicament. "We were hit by double tragedy on Saturday," he said, describing how bandits first struck their villages before the military mistakenly targeted their own defenders. Abdullahi Ali, a Mani resident and member of a local hunters' militia, confirmed that villagers had called for military assistance after the bandit attack.
The vigilantes from Maraya and nearby communities gathered their forces and pursued the criminals into the surrounding area. Unfortunately, when the requested military aircraft arrived on the scene, pilots apparently could not distinguish between the pursuing vigilantes and the fleeing bandits, leading to the tragic friendly fire incident that claimed at least 20 lives.
Military defends controversial operation
Air Commodore Ejodame provided the military's official account of the incident, stating that intelligence reports indicated "a significant number of terrorists were massing and preparing to strike unsuspecting settlements." Military officials maintained that their response followed proper protocols based on credible threat information about planned attacks on civilian populations.
According to the military statement, further intelligence confirmed that bandits had already killed farmers and abducted numerous civilians in the area. Ejodame acknowledged that two local vigilantes were killed and two others injured in what he described as "crossfire," though he did not explicitly admit to mistaking vigilantes for bandits.
The Nigerian military has faced increasing scrutiny over similar incidents in recent years, with critics questioning the effectiveness of aerial operations in complex security environments. Military leaders argue that air strikes remain necessary tools for combating well-armed criminal groups that often outgun local security forces and terrorize rural communities across northern Nigeria.
Rights groups demand accountability
Amnesty International issued a sharp condemnation of the latest airstrike, calling for a comprehensive investigation into what they characterized as another "reckless" military operation. The human rights organization acknowledged that bandit attacks warrant government response but argued that repeated civilian casualties from military operations violate international law.
The pattern of mistaken airstrikes has become alarmingly frequent in Nigeria's conflict zones. In January, at least 16 vigilantes died in a similar incident in Zamfara's Zurmi district, while December 2022 saw more than 100 civilians killed in Mutunji village during another pursuit operation gone wrong.
A particularly devastating attack occurred in December 2023 when military aircraft struck a religious gathering in Kaduna state, killing at least 85 people. These repeated incidents have raised serious questions about military intelligence gathering, target identification procedures, and coordination between ground forces and air support units operating in Nigeria's troubled northern regions.
Communities caught between violence
The Zamfara incident highlights the impossible situation facing rural Nigerian communities trapped between bandit violence and military operations. Residents like Alka Tanimu expressed the bitter reality that families will still need to pay ransoms for kidnapped relatives while their stolen cattle remain permanently lost.
Local vigilante groups have emerged as crucial community defenders in areas where government security presence remains inadequate or ineffective. These civilian militias often possess better local knowledge and faster response times than military units, but they lack the training and equipment necessary to safely coordinate with air support operations.
The cycle of violence continues to devastate northwestern Nigeria, where bandit groups operate with relative impunity across vast ungoverned spaces. Communities face the daily threat of attacks while simultaneously risking becoming casualties of military counter-operations designed to protect them, creating a security paradox that has proven difficult for Nigerian authorities to resolve.
