Civilians feared killed as NAF airstrike hits border market

The spokesperson for NAF, Ehimen Ejodame, an air commodore, described the airstrikes as precision bombings of terrorists’ location in the Jilli axis.

An airstrike by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has reportedly struck a border market in the North-east, with several civilians feared killed.

NAF has confirmed the bombings but did not disclose that civilian casualties were recorded.

However, local sources said the injured survivors of the strike were taken to hospitals in the area, including in Geidam, for treatment. It was reported that the councillor of Jilli ward in Geidam, Ibraheem Geidam, called on residents to donate blood to help the survivors.

According to Yerwa Express, a local publication in the region, the incident occurred Saturday evening at a market in Jilli, a Yobe suburb bordering Borno State. The market is frequented by cross-border traders, making it a busy commercial hub.

The exact number of deaths remains unclear at the time of reporting.

Witnesses quoted in the report said the military targeted insurgents who came to the market to collect levies from traders. However, they said civilians were caught in the bombardment, which occurred during peak trading hours.

NAF acknowledges operation, silent on civilian casualties

The spokesperson for NAF, Ehimen Ejodame, an air commodore, confirmed the airstrikes, describing them as precision bombings of terrorists’ locations in the Jilli axis.

In a statement shared with this newspaper, Mr Ejodame stated that the operation was part of the “coordinated air-ground integration operation” with troops of the Nigerian Army, conducted after decimating the terrorists’ hideouts in the area.

The statement did not acknowledge that civilians were killed in the operation, and Mr Ejodome has not responded to PREMIUM TIMES’ enquiry about this.

The development adds to a history of controversial air operations in the insurgency-ravaged North-east and other regions in the North, where insurgency and banditry have mixed with communal and resource-based clashes.

In these conflict zones, some strikes have resulted in civilian deaths, often attributed to faulty intelligence or targeting errors.

Last December, such strikes killed many civilians, mostly fishermen and commercial drivers in the Mararaba area in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State. Ten vehicles were reportedly destroyed in the airstrikes. Four months after the incident, the Air Force has neither commented on it nor taken responsibility.

In 2024, early morning military airstrikes targeting Lakurawa terrorists killed at least 10 civilians and injured others in Sokoto State. Victims and families of the deceased persons were “compensated” nearly a year after.

In another unresolved accidental airstrike in April 2022, the Nigerian Air Force killed six minors in Kurebe, one of the terrorised villages in Niger State, north-central Nigeria. Four months later, yet in another erroneous airstrike, it killed eight more people in the same village.