A Nigerian Air Force strike targeting jihadist rebels killed more than 100 civilians and wounded dozens more after aircraft hit a local market in northeastern Yobe State on Saturday, according to Amnesty International and local officials. The Nigerian military confirmed that a misfire had occurred but offered no further details. The incident drew immediate international attention and renewed scrutiny of the military's conduct in its long-running counterinsurgency campaign.
Amnesty International reported more than 100 dead and at least 35 people seriously wounded, while a local community chief put the combined toll of dead and wounded at around 200. The strike targeted a village in Yobe State, a predominantly rural region in Nigeria's northeast near the border with Borno State — the historic epicentre of the jihadist insurgency. Nigeria's military had not responded to detailed queries from international news agencies at the time of reporting.
Nigeria has been battling a jihadist insurgency for 17 years, since the Islamist group Boko Haram launched an armed uprising in 2009. The conflict has since fractured into multiple factions, most notably the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which has grown into a formidable force across the Lake Chad Basin. The Nigerian military has escalated its use of aerial operations in recent years in an effort to dislodge insurgents from rural strongholds where ground operations are costly and difficult.
The scale of civilian casualties points to what rights groups have long warned is an inadequate system for verifying targets before strikes are carried out. Amnesty International and other organisations have previously documented cases of Nigerian air force strikes hitting civilian gatherings, including markets and displaced persons camps, in the northeast. Saturday's incident follows that troubling pattern.
The attack underscores the human cost of a conflict that has displaced millions and destabilised much of Nigeria's northeast over nearly two decades. As pressure mounts on Abuja — Nigeria's federal capital — to investigate the incident and hold those responsible to account, the strike is likely to deepen mistrust between civilian communities and the security forces meant to protect them.