On 25 December 2024, an airstrike by the Nigerian Armed Forces in Nigeria's northwest Sokoto State killed at least 10 people and injured many others. [1] The military had been targeting the terror group Lakurawa in the villages of Gidan Sama and Rumtuwa, but civilians were caught in the crossfire.
This was not the first time airstrikes by the Nigerian Armed Forces had resulted in civilian casualties. In December 2023, an airstrike in northern Kaduna State killed over 120 people, and in September 2023, another airstrike in Kaduna killed 24 people. [2]
Sokoto's governor, Ahmad Aliyu, launched an investigation into the incident [3] and expressed condolences to the victims' families. He also pledged to provide them with financial and food support. [4] [5]
The incident raised concerns among human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which has called on the Nigerian military to review its procedures and avoid such deadly accidents in the future. [5]
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is the air branch of the Nigerian Armed Forces. It is the youngest branch of the Nigerian Armed Forces, established four years after the nation became independent. As at 2021, the air force is one of the largest in Africa, consisting of over 18,000 personnel. Some of its popular aircraft include the Chengdu F-7s, Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jets, JF-17 Thunder Block II, T129 Atak, Agusta Westland 109, Eurocopter EC135 and Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano.
During the War in Afghanistan, according to the Costs of War Project the war killed 176,000 people in Afghanistan: 46,319 civilians, 69,095 military and police and at least 52,893 opposition fighters. However, the death toll is possibly higher due to unaccounted deaths by "disease, loss of access to food, water, infrastructure, and/or other indirect consequences of the war." According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, the conflict killed 212,191 people. The Cost of War project estimated in 2015 that the number who have died through indirect causes related to the war may be as high as 360,000 additional people based on a ratio of indirect to direct deaths in contemporary conflicts.
The 2009 Kunduz airstrike took place on Friday 4 September 2009 at roughly 2:30 am local time, 7 km (4.3 mi) southwest of Kunduz City, Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan. Responding to a call by German forces, an American F-15E fighter jet struck two fuel tankers, killing over 90 civilians in the attack.
The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian communities, and the insurgents' ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in the region.
Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency is the chronology of the Boko Haram insurgency, an ongoing armed conflict between Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. Boko Haram have carried out many attacks against the military, police and civilians since 2009, mostly in Nigeria. The low-intensity conflict is centred on Borno State. It peaked in the mid-2010s, when Boko Haram extended their insurgency into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Religious violence in Nigeria refers to Christian-Muslim strife in modern Nigeria, which can be traced back to 1953. Today, religious violence in Nigeria is dominated by the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria. Since the turn of the 21st century, 62,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed by the terrorist group Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen and other groups. The killings have been referred to as a silent genocide.
On 17 January 2017, a Nigerian Air Force jet mistakenly bombed an internally displaced persons camp near the Cameroonian border in Rann, Borno State. They had believed it was a Boko Haram encampment. The bombing left at least 115 people dead, including six Red Cross aid workers, and left more than 100 injured.
The following is a list of events in 2021 in Nigeria.
The bandit conflict in northwest Nigeria is an ongoing conflict between the country's federal government and various gangs and ethnic militias. Starting in 2011, the insecurity remaining from the conflict between the Fulani and Hausa ethnic groups quickly allowed other criminal and jihadist elements to form in the region.
On 18 March 2019, during the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani, the Talon Anvil special operations group, a Delta Force unit within the larger Task Force 9 of the United States Armed Forces, carried out an airstrike using an F-15E fighter-attack aircraft in Al-Baghuz Fawqani, Syria. The incident was concealed by the U.S. military, and was first reported on 14 November 2021 by The New York Times, who reported that the incident led to the deaths of 80 people, 64 of whom were civilians, which would make it one of the largest civilian casualty incidents of the war against the Islamic State. A US military investigation in May 2022 concluded that the airstrike killed 52 ISIL fighters and 4 civilians and did not violate the laws of war.
From 4 to 6 January 2022, over 200 people were killed by bandits in Zamfara State, Nigeria in a series of massacres. This was the deadliest terrorist attack in recent Nigerian history.
Events in the year 2023 in Nigeria.
Events in the year 2024 in Nigeria.
On 3 December 2023, a drone strike was carried out by the Nigerian Armed Forces on Tudun Biri, Kaduna State. Targeting what they thought was a group of bandits, the army mistakenly hit a village, killing at least 88 civilians.
The Nigerian Military has carried out a number of airstrikes that claimed civilian lives in the country, which the government and the military explained as being erroneous or targeted non-state actors. These airstrikes happened in a number of states battling with insecurity as a result of terrorists' and bandits' activities. The recent of such attacks happened in Tudun Biri village of Kaduna state on Sunday 3 December 2023, when two military airstrikes hit the villagers celebrating an Islamic Festival which resulted in the death of more 120 according to Amnesty International.