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By Ehichioya Ezomon

Were it even a one-off occurrence, the Army bombing of celebrants of Maulud (birthday of Prophet Muhammad) in Kaduna State on December 3, 2023, would be hard to explain away as “mistaken.” But it isn’t!

“Mistakenly” bombing of civilian communities (or troops’ positions) has become a periodic happening, especially in several states in northern Nigeria where insurgency, banditry and kidnapping predominate.

And the so-called “inadvertent” bombings seem to occur when the Military, the Police and other security agencies and civilian collaborators are gaining in the war against terrorism and criminalities across the country.

Which bears the question: Are these repeated shelling by jets or drones accidental, coincidental, happenstance, inadvertent, involuntary, mistaken, unanticipated, unforeseen, unintended, unintentional, unknowing, unmeant, unplanned, and unpremeditated?

Or they’re calculated, certain, deliberate, destined, foreseen, intended, intentional, inevitable, knowing, planned, predictable, predestined, premeditated, unforced, voluntary and wilful?

The probing question mostly arises from the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) quick denial of involvement of its aircraft in the bombing, noting that other sister security agencies deploy drones across the theatre of operations.

The Army accepted responsibility for the repeated interdiction to do further damage and inflict more casualties when survivors of the initial blast were rescuing the injured for medical attention.

Were the target actually a gathering of terrorists, the Army would’ve received plaudits for a job well done in annihilating hundreds of insurgents or bandits that’ve killed thousands across northern Nigeria since 2009 when Boko Haram planted its feet in Borno State. But the “target” were villagers celebrating Maulud. That’s why the Army’s received condemnation, calls for investigation and retribution for killing non-combatant civilians.

Since 2017, as tallied by The Nation in its December 6 report, six communities have been bombed – five by NAF jets, and one by an Army drone – killing hundreds, majority of them women and children. They’re as follows:

* January 17, 2017: Between 52 and 126 villagers, including aid workers, were killed and 120 injured, as NAF fighter jets bombed a camp of Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Rann, Borno State.

* April 13, 2020: A NAF fighter jet shelled Sakotoku village in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State, killing 17 civilians, including women and children.

* April 13, 2022: A NAF jet killed six children returning home from where they had gone to fetch water in Kurebe village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.

* July 7, 2022: A NAF jet bombed Kunkuna village in Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State, killing one, and injuring 13 villagers, shortly after the attack on ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s security team in the state.

* January 2023: Bombs by NAF jets killed 37 persons, including herders, at the boundary between Benue and Nasarawa states in Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

* December 3, 2023: Nigerian Army drone killed over 120 villagers, who were celebrating Maulud in Tudun Biri of Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Similarly, a report by Al Jazeera on September 6, 2022, noted that since April 2014, at least 14 incidences had been documented of the air force bombing residential villages. They include:

* February 2014: A NAF aircraft dropped a bomb on Daglun, a village in Borno State, killing 20 civilians, and wounding scores of others.

* April 2019: Children in Tangaram village in Anka community in Zamfara State cheered an aircraft, which passed over the village, but returned to drop a bomb that killed six children, and injured 17 civilians.

* September 15, 2021: An air raid killed 10 people and wounded 20 others in Buhari village in Yunusari LGA of Yobe State, with NAF saying its jet targeted members of Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP) when it hit the village. But the residents said they hadn’t witnessed insurgent attacks in three months, and wondered when and where did NAF see and locate the terrorists in their village, even as they’re paid only N10,000 compensation.

Also, The Cable did extensive coverage of communities or areas impacted by military airstrikes, and reports the following:

* In June 2021: There were reports that an air force fighter jet killed some wedding guests in Genu, Rijau LGA of Niger State, with the NAF saying it had no record of unintended civilian casualties apart from bandits.

* In July 2021: A NAF airstrike targeting bandits at the Sububu forest located between Shinkafi and Maradun LGAs of Zamfara, hit and killed a woman and four of her children, with NAF denying that civilian casualties were recorded.

* December 1, 2022: An undisclosed number of people killed in Dansadau district, Maru LGA of Zamfara State, when military air raid was conducted in Malele, Mutunji and other villages around Dansadau.

* In January 2023: A NAF jet dropped multiple bombs in Galadima Kogo, Shiroro LGA of Niger State, killing 30 vigilantes, who’d laid ambush for bandits they sighted in the area.

* On September 28, 2021: About 20 fishermen reportedly killed by a NAF airstrike in the Kwatar Daban Masara region of Lake Chad.

* On February 20, 2022: A Nigerian military airstrike targeting terrorists killed seven children, who were playing as their parents were in a ceremony, in a border community in Nachade village, Maradi, in the Niger Republic.

Ironically, the Military hasn’t spared its own in the “wrong” bombing of suspected terrorist targets, as there’d been reports of Air Force shelling of troops confronting insurgents in the North-East of Nigeria.

For instance, in April 2020, some soldiers were killed in Mainok, Borno State, after a NAF fighter jet fired a bomb on the ground troops it’s providing air support for. The jet hit the wrong coordinates, while targeting Boko Haram insurgents, who had attacked the troops some days earlier.

An October 2021 report by Abuja-based think-tank, Centre For Democracy and Development (CDD), noted that, “since 2011, an estimated 12,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced across the northwestern states of Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara due to the conflict” by bandits, who’ve “raided villages, attacked an air force fighter jet and a train, and kidnapped people of all ages, including children, for ransom.”

It’s in resolve to add more firepower to its campaign against criminalities that the Military engage in airstrikes on terrorists and bandits’ hideouts or rendezvous, and thus prone to misfiring.

Affirming the possibility of accidental killing of civilians in the fight against terrorists, former Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the civilian victims were “collateral (unintentional) deaths,” that happen “once in a while.”

“Fighting insurgency is a very difficult thing. And as much as the air force or the military are careful, once in a while, it does happen – that innocent people also suffer. We regret it,” Mr Mohammed said.

Agreed that in “providing air support for ground troops in the fight against a spate of killings and kidnappings” across northern Nigeria, the Military could make mistakes, but they shouldn’t be on a regular basis or denied offhand, that “no bomb or missile was even expended” in the affected areas.

When the Military did admit any errors, it’s to justify the mistakes under the cover of targeting armed groups hibernating in or pursued into civilian communities.

For example, while the Army acknowledged, and apologised for its error in the Kaduna bombing, the Defence Headquarters claimed the drone attack on Ligarma community was based on information about untoward activities of terrorists in the area, known to be terrorist-infested in Kaduna State.

In a statement on December 5 in Abuja, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, said the Army Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) captured movement of groups of persons synonymous with the terrorist tactics and modus operandi.

Buba said the observed advance of the terrorists that were gathered posed a threat to key infrastructure within reach of their activities, and “the threat was eliminated to prevent the terrorists from unleashing terror on innocent civilians.”

“It should be noted that, terrorists often deliberately embed themselves within civilian population centres for civilian population to bear the consequences of their atrocities,” Buba said, adding, “Nevertheless, the Nigerian military does its best at all times to distinguish between civilians and terrorists.”

Buba said the military views civilian deaths in the cause of operations as needless and unwanted tragedies, “which cause the armed forces to take extensive measures to avoid them.”

One such measure is to continually give precise instructions to communities, “to always alert troops of their activities, particularly when such a community is known to be infested with terrorists and their sympathisers.”

“These instructions are intended at enabling the military distinguish between friendly and untoward activities,” Buba said, and pledged that, “the armed forces would continue to operate in line with international laws, and also continue a determined and cautious progress in eradicating terrorists from the land.”

Still, the public, and especially survivors of erroneous military attacks, “want the government (military) to admit what they did,” rather than justifying their actions as resulting from targeting armed groups hibernating, sighted in or pursued into civilian communities, and paying compensations in pittance thereafter to victims.

As Aina’u Umaru, 35-year-old mother of a girl, Sakinah, killed in the April 2019 bombing of Tangaram village in Zamfara State, recounted to Al Jazeera, “It has been more than two years, and there have been no statements from the Nigerian military.”

According to her: “The Nigerian air force said they followed bandits who ran to our village… These bandits stay in the bush, and their camps are known to them (military). If it was confirmed that bandits ran into the town, is it appropriate to bomb a village of thousands of people?

“Whenever I remember her (Sakinah), I tell myself it (military bomb attack) was deliberate,” Umaru said, and queried: “Why would they drop a bomb in a village because they’re chasing bandits? It ruined us. We were left to deal with their mistakes.”

The “how’s” and “why’s” for the “unintended” Army shelling of celebrating villagers in Kaduna State are what everybody who’s spoken wants answers to, while they condemn the act, condole with the victims, and call for an investigation, and stiff penalties for culprits.

President Bola Tinubu, away in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the United Nations Climate Change COP-28 summit, has called for an expeditious and thorough investigation into the incident, even as he condoled with the victims and families of those who died in the bombing.

“President Tinubu describes the incident as very unfortunate, disturbing, and painful, expressing indignation and grief over the tragic loss of Nigerian lives,” a statement by presidential spokesman, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, said on December 5.

“The president has directed a thorough and full-fledged investigation into the incident and called for calm while the authorities looked into the mishap,” Ngelale said.

Vice President Kashim Shettima visited the injured at the Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital in Kaduna on December 7, and pledged government’s full investigation and punishments for culprits of the massacre.

“There is no gain in dwelling too much on this incident that has happened,” Shettima said after touring the hospital. “I am here because the President is deeply concerned; he was deeply touched by what happened.

“Let’s not talk about the numbers (because), one life lost in cold blood is as gruesome as millions lost in a pogrom. The heart of the President is with the bereaved families.

“It is already directed by Mr President, an investigation is being conducted with a view to preventing a re-occurrence of the incident and we expect a report to be submitted in the shortest possible time.”

Many other individuals and groups have spoken in tandem with the realities on the ground. They include Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani; House of Representatives Speaker Tejudeen Abbas; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi; the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF); Northern Elders Forum (NEF); Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN); Congress of Northern Nigeria Christians (CNNC); Jama’atul Nasril-Islam; and Arewa Youth Consultatve Forum (AYCF), whose President General, Shettima Yerima, said, “It is sad that a security agency, whose primary responsibility is to protect lives and property, is now the one killing the people in the guise of (a) ‘mistake.’ This is not acceptable because it is one mistake too many.

“Perpetrators of this so-called mistake must be made to explain beyond (all) reasonable doubt(s) how religious people, carrying out religious activities, could be mistaken for terrorists. Enough of this unwarranted killings of innocent people by those who should protect them,” Mr Yerima said.

Amnesty International (AI), whose Country Director, Isah Sanusi, and officials of the organisation visited the village, gave a figure of “over 120 dead” as of December 6 – a figure that conflicts with the account reportedly given by an eyewitness of the burial of the victims in two mass graves.

Mr Sanusi said: “I can confirm to you that the current number of casualties in the affected areas is more than 120 persons.

“According to our contact, who was at the scene of the mass burial, there were at least 77 dead bodies in each of the mass graves. There were also 17 other persons, who are (were) from adjoining villages, who lost their lives in the ugly incident.”

This totals over 171 dead as of December 6, and the figure could rise, as updates are given by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), whose figures of casualties as of December 4 were 85 dead and 66 injured.

While investigation, sanctioning of the culprits, and paying compensations to victims and those who lost relatives in the Kaduna tragedy are imperative, there’s need for the Military to look inward for possible saboteurs of its operations to combat and degrade terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other criminalities across Nigeria.

Because globally, there’re reports of rise in participation in or having sympathy for terrorism within the security agencies, particularly the Military. Is the Nigerian military immune to this frightening trend within the security apparatuses?

Actually, there’ve been reports of saboteurs within the Nigerian armed forces, who relay troops’ positions to insurgents for attacks, or tip off terrorists about imminent attacks by security operatives; and some security personnel aid and abet terrorist and bandit attacks and kidnappings in the North, and oil bunkering in the South.

The Military (and its arms: Army, Air Force and Navy) has been quick to deny such allegations as aimed at tarnishing its image and reputation, and distracting it from the war against internal security challenges that’ve overwhelmed the Police and other civil security agencies in the country.

Yet, mishaps, such as the Kaduna bombing, persist to question the kind, quality and actionable intelligence the security agencies conduct and receive before deciding to strike terrorist targets.

For instance, how did the “identified and actionable target” in the Kaduna community turn out to be a gathering of people celebrating Maulud? Was it due to faulty Intel or the purported “terrorists” suddenly disappeared before the drone strike?

As the bomb-bearing drone hadn’t the intelligence to determinine whether its target was of terrorists or villagers celebrating Maulud, what further and final checks did the drone operators carry out – especially as it’s in the night – before they released the “doomsday” bombs on the target?

Many questions begging for answers, as Nigerians await the outcome of the investigation, to “get to the bottom” of the Kaduna bombing, hoping that the matter won’t be “swept under the carpet,” as did previous probes of such untoward mishaps.

• Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.