In the last seven years, over 426 innocent civilians have had to pay with their lives after military air strikes aimed at bandits and terrorists have hit the wrong target. This has thrown several families into mourning. Solomon Odeniyi writes about the victims’ families and survivors’ struggle for justice, which remains elusive

Okotta Samiala still grapples with the sorrow of losing 11 of his beloved siblings to the accidental air strike by the Nigerian Air Force that occurred in the Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State on January 24, 2023.

The agony he Is experiencing has been exacerbated by his inability to get justice for them.

Samiala, who reluctantly spoke to our correspondent, said all efforts to ensure the family gets justice, including speaking to journalists, have been futile.

“We have been pursuing the issue to no avail. Everything we tried to get justice failed. It brings me pain whenever I am being interviewed about the incident. Many journalists have come, and we have spoken with them, thinking something would come out, but nothing. We are tired of talking to you people,” a frustrated Samiala said.

Despite being indicted by investigations by Human Rights Watch, Reuters, Amnesty International, and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, as well as outcries from the citizens, the Nigerian Air Force failed to own up to the operational blunder, labelling those killed as terrorists who were planning an attack on the community

“The Air Force carried out surveillance, and the surveillance confirmed that they were terrorists and that surveillance continued for almost throughout the day until later in the evening when a truck appeared at that scene.

“The truck was suspected to have brought logistics to them and that was why approval was given by the appropriate authority that that truck be taken out and the truck was taken out.

“The position of the Air Force is that terrorists were struck that day, and whether it is whatever group and if they think they were innocent people, let them provide the evidence,” the then Air Force spokesperson, Air Commodore Ayodele Famuyiwa, said.

But Samiala is still furious with the Air Force for calling his siblings terrorists and their failure to admit the strike was done in error.

He said, “They called innocent people terrorists after killing them. My siblings were pastoralists. They just wasted their lives. I lost 11 of my siblings to the incident. Our leaders persuaded us that we should allow peace to reign and that justice would be done to those responsible for the incident, but as I speak, the military has not admitted they killed innocent citizens, which is very painful.”

Grimly recalling the unfortunate incident, Samiala said his siblings were bombed while offloading their cattle impounded by the Benue State Livestock Guards.

He said, “Two weeks before the incident, men of the Benue State Livestock Guards enforcing the state anti-open grazing law, seized over 1,000 cows from them. The guards accused them of crossing into Benue State and fined them N27m.

“After they paid the fine, the guards ordered them to move the cows by truck back to Nasarawa State to the area where the air strike took place. They were also the ones who directed them to the area to offload the cattle. They could have done it in a more convenient area, but they were afraid of what would happen if they disobeyed. It was at the point of offloading that they were bombed.”

Samila lamented the burden of settling the loan his siblings had acquired to reclaim their herd of cattle while shouldering the responsibility of caring for their families amid the hardship in the country.

He said, “They took a loan to reclaim their cattle seized by the guards. The family is planning to repay the loan. I have been the one taking care of the children they left behind; you know what the situation of the country is saying. After the government offset their medical bills there has been nothing from them. “

No compensation, no justice

Like Samiala in Nasawara State, Rabiu Umaru in Zamfara State is also dealing with the loss of his loved ones killed in an accidental air strike by the Nigerian military in 2022.

Umaru, who tragically lost his elder brother and six others in the air strike, lamented the absence of any government official extending a visit to them.

He recounted receiving meager assistance, a sum of N60,000, from his representative in the House of Representatives and a former legislator from his area.

Umaru said, “My brother died in the incident. Two of his children were affected by the strike and are still receiving treatment. In my family, we have more than six people that were affected. We still have a lot of us receiving treatment.

“The person representing us at the House of Representatives, Abdulmalik Nakogo, is the only person that came to commiserate and gave a token of N50,000 to each of the victims. He tried; but since then, not the local government, state or federal government provided any form of compensation to the families of those who died or even those receiving treatment. Even sympathy that was supposed to be a normal thing from the government was not shown. We also have a former legislator who came around to give a token of N10,000.

“We are unhappy, no sense of belonging was given to us, they took us for animals without any form of concern. It is unfair.”

The Nigerian Air Force during an air interdiction against bandits in the Mutumji community in the Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State on December 19, 2022, accidentally bombed residents.

Although a total of 64 persons were reportedly killed in the incident, Umaru said the casualty figures increased to 71.

“Many lives were lost. In a day we buried more than 60 bodies, excluding those that died in the hospital and at home while taking care of them. After one to two weeks another set of bodies was buried, around 11 of them, some up to 71. As I speak to you, we have some survivors still receiving treatment. ‘’

Explaining how he had been coping, Umaru said, “Subhanalilla, journalist, I am telling you it has not been easy for us, the survivors. We deserve to be compensated too just like we heard they are doing for people in Kaduna. We were the first to witness this ugly event.”

He pleaded with the government to also ensure that the community was well-developed.

Umaru said, “Trading, farming, and animal husbandry which are the main sources of livelihood here have stopped due to insecurity. There will be no development here if this continues. The government should help us. “

In the last seven years, Nigeria has witnesssed no fewer than 14 accidental air strikes by the military claiming at least 426 innocent civilians lives, and injuring no fewer than 270 civilians.

Harvest of accidental strikes

Amid the decade-long war against Boro Haram insurgency and banditry in the country, accidental air strikes by the Nigerian military have unfortunately become a recurring decimal. Despite reassurances, such accidental air strikes have not stopped.

In 2017, the Air Force accidentally bombed an Internally Displaced Persons camp in Rann in Borno State. Doctors Without Borders said the strike killed at least 50 people and wounded 120.

On December 4, 2017, the military sent a fighter jet to fire rockets at villages as a “warning”. Amnesty International said its team which visited the state after the air strike confirmed that innocent residents were attacked by the fighter jet as they attempted to flee. AI said locals in each village provided it with lists of the dead, numbering 86.

It added that 51 had gunshot or machete wounds, while the remaining 35 died as a result of the air strikes.

Also, 11 people were killed and 20 others injured from six air strikes launched on April 9, 2019, in Dumbourou in the Zurmi LGA in Zamfara State.

On April 13, 2020, 17 people, including children, were killed after a NAF fighter jet bombed Sakotoku village in the Damboa LGA of Borno State.

Nine civilians, including three children, were killed in a strike by the Air Force in a rural community near the border with Niger on September 16, 2021. Twenty-three people were injured in that incident.

An air strike killed 10 people in the Buwari community of Yobe State on September 16, 2021. Residents said at least 19 persons were injured.

Also, some villagers alleged that an air strike by the military on September 26, 2021, killed no fewer than 20 residents in Borno State. To date, the Air Force has yet to own up to the incident, despite the insistence of the villagers.

Thirteen residents were wounded while one other died after a NAF fighter jet struck Kunkuna village in the Safana LGA of Katsina, on July 7, 2022.

On December 13, 2022, the properties of residents were destroyed in a miscalculated air strike in Kaduna. This happened to be the only mishit with no record of fatality.

At least 64 persons were killed and many injured in an air strike by the NAF on December 19, 2022, at Mutumji Community in the Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

In 2023, there have been three cases so far.

The first occurred in Niger State on January 24 when a NAF aircraft in Galadima Kogo, Shiroro Local Government Area of the state was said to have killed dozens of vigilantes and residents in error. The incident, according to the state government, rendered over 8,000 residents homeless.

A day after the Niger incident, on January 25, no fewer than 40 herders were killed in Nasarawa State.

The latest incident happened on December 3 when a drone operated by the Nigerian Army bombed residents of Tudun Biri in Kaduna State during a religious celebration.

While the government put the casualty figure at 81, Amnesty International claimed 127 villagers were killed in the incident.

One of the worst victims of the accidental bombing is 37-year-old Idris Dahiru, who said he lost 30 members of his family to the incident.

In a chat with our correspondent, Dahiru muttered: “I lost 30 members of my family to the attack. All I want is for those who killed my people to be prosecuted.

The latest accidental air strike has generated a huge outcry. President Bola Tinubu demanded a thorough probe while the Defence Headquarters said heads would roll.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, during an interactive section with journalists, promised that personnel found culpable in the Kaduna incident would be dealt with.

He said, “We don’t want to say anything now since there will be an investigation and we know our procedures. If they are found guilty there will be punishment and I can assure you that we are going to be transparent about it.”

On December 8, the CDS reportedly set up an eight-man probe panel.

“Kindly be informed the CDS has since set up an investigation panel, comprising eight senior officers, whose membership cuts across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

“The panel was set up on December 8, 2023. The outcome of their effort will be communicated in due course,” DHQ spokesman, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, told The PUNCH last week.

While there have been donations from different quarters for the victims, it remains to be seen if the authorities will follow through on the promised justice for the victims of the accidental bombing.

Attack a violation of humanitarian law

Nigeria is a signatory to the International Humanitarian Law which is made up of treaties like the Geneva Conventions and customary international law, among others.

The law states that parties to a conflict shall at all times distinguish between enemy combatants and protected persons. It added that attacks shall be directed solely against an object, structure, individual, or entity that is considered to be a valid target for attack by belligerent forces.

Also, the principle of distinction protects the civilian population and civilian objects from the effects of military operations. It requires parties to an armed conflict to distinguish at all times, and under all circumstances, between combatants and military objectives on the one hand, and civilians and civilian objects on the other, and only to target the former.

With the reoccurring mishit, the military has flagrantly violated the laws of war.

US human rights concerns

Tendency for mistakes and possible human rights abuses by the Nigerian military has been cited by the United States of America to decline sale of weapons to Nigeria to aid the counter-insurgency war.

In February this year, two US congress members vehemently opposed a $1bn weapon deal between US and Nigeria, citing human rights concerns.

Democrat Sara Jacobs of California and Republican Chris Smith of New Jersey, both members of the subcommittee on Africa, “called for a review of security assistance and cooperation programmes in Nigeria, including a risk assessment of civilian casualties and abuses resulting from the arms assistance.”

The US lawmakers said humanitarian workers had reported that Nigeria’s security forces “appear to have a limited understanding of humanitarian law and tools for effective engagement with local populations.”

“Therefore, we believe continuing to move forward with the nearly $1bn arms sale would be highly inappropriate and we urge the administration to rescind it.”

Back in 2014, then American Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, said cases of human rights abuses by Nigerian troops in the North-East in the past years stood out as a sore thumb as the US considered the Nigerian military’s request for arms to tackle Boko Haram.

Speaking in Yola, Adamawa State in October 2014, Entwistle explained that, “Before we share equipment with any country, whether it is a government to government grant or a commercial sale that requires government approval, we look at a couple of things. Does it make sense in terms of that country’s needs?

“The second thing we look at is the human rights situation in that country. And as we look at equipment transfers, we look at the situation in those countries in the past few years. And as you all know, there have been instances (I’m not saying across the board) of human rights abuses by the Nigerian military in the North-East.

“So the kind of question that we have to ask is let’s say we give certain kinds of equipment to Nigerian military, that is then used in a way that affects human situation; if I approve that, I’m responsible for that. We take that responsibility very seriously.”

Many probes, no justice

Our correspondent observed that after every erroneous strike, the authorities set up an inquiry board to investigate the incident, however, no further details were provided and no punishment was meted out.

To date, rights groups, local and international are still demanding accountability and justice for the families of the victims and survivors of the military’s miscalculated strikes.

The failure to hold the military accountable for past actions, the Director, Amnesty International Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, believed has encouraged more erroneous strikes.

“The Nigerian authorities’ persistent failure to hold the military to account is encouraging impunity and increasingly endangering the lives of the civilians the military is supposed to be protecting. The result is that the military is routinely carrying out air strikes that end up killing civilians,” said Sanusi.

Amnesty International, MACABAN lament neglect of past victims

N342.9m has been raised for Kaduna victims, but victims in other states are being overlooked. Northern governors contributed N180m, the Northern House of Reps Caucus donated N45m; the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party Peter, Obi gave N5m, and an Islamic group donated N3.9m.

Sanusi noted with dismay the support and attention the victims of the Kaduna mishit were getting while those in Nasarawa had been abandoned to their fate.

He said, “Eleven months after, no acceptance of responsibility, no report of investigation nor any show of sympathy by either the Federal Government or any of its agencies. Those killed were bona fide peace-loving Nigerians, deserving justice like every other citizen.

“To our greatest surprise, a similar drone strike in Tudun Biri is getting the attention of not only the Federal Government but even the military accepting responsibility and pledging compensation for the victims. The leadership of the Northern Governors Forum and that of the federal legislative arm of government have, in addition to visiting the site, pledged all sorts of assistance.”

Sanusi called on President Bola Tinubu to institute a panel of inquiry into past incidents in the country.

“Tinubu should have done better by setting up an independent panel to probe past incidents. That will give the FG the best opportunity to learn and evolve their tactics against terrorists.”

He stressed: “At AI, we believe justice is the first compensation. After investigation, and punishment of those involved in the incidents, you can now offer them money. That money may never get to the victims and if it does, what use is the money to someone who lost 34 members of his family to the incident?”

What obtains in other climes

World over, the ariel power of the military has helped in containing the activities of terrorists and other violent groups. Mistakes have also happened but cases of blunders are not as consistent as they have been in Nigeria. Also, the military takes responsibility and punishes any of its personnel found culpable.

For instance, no fewer than 16 American military personnel, including a general, were given administrative punishments for their roles in the accidental strike on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in October 2015.

In Nigeria, apart from the Kaduna and Borno incidents, the military, particularly the Nigerian Air Force, has hardly owned up to some of these incidents. Also, no one has been held accountable for past incidents.

Also, data by Pentagon, the United States military, provided about $2m in condolence payments to civilian victims of its airstrikes in Afghanistan between 2015 and 2020 as compensation to victims’ families and survivors. Apart from the Kaduna and Borno incidents, there were no reports of compensation for the families of victims as well as survivors.

No legal action from victims

Our correspondent observed that families of victims and survivors often refrain from taking legal action against the military, and even those interested are discouraged. In Kaduna, for instance, a villager identified as Dalhatu Salihu, who filed a N33bn lawsuit against the Federal Government, faced disapproval from community leaders.

But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Ifedayo Adedipe, said victims’ families and survivors seeking justice must approach the court and not leave the matter in the hands of the military.

The senior lawyer noted that there are provisions that could be applied to support their claims in the laws of the land.

Adedipe said, “I can tell you that there is hardly a situation in Nigeria that is not provided for under our law. We have laws to guide most of the things we do. If the security operatives carelessly discharge a weapon that kills people, the victims need to ensure that they proceed to court on time. Otherwise, your action will be statute-bared. Most of the people do not follow this.

“If you do not approach the court, how do you expect to get justice? People must approach the court. If they don’t approach the court, too bad for them.

“If you do not go to court and you want justice, is there provision for the military on their volition to institute a case against its personnel involved in such an incident? I wouldn’t know because I’ve not researched on that.”

Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Adegoke Rasheed, said the inability of the government to punish those involved in such incidents was responsible for the serial erroneous strikes in the country.

He said, “Unfortunately, this kind of incident is repeating itself and quite too often for that matter. It only shows the inability of the system to bring to book those who are responsible for this.

“If it is a society where human lives matter, you will agree with me that whatever it may be worth, such victims and their relatives would be compensated adequately. I think it is for the government to wake up to its responsibilities and ensure those behind the strikes are punished. “

A security expert, Timothy Avele, blamed the serial erroneous strikes on intelligence failure.

Avele said there must be training for personnel as well as punishment for anyone culpable to put an end to it.

He said, “The major reason for these recurrent accidental bombings is faulty intelligence analysis. To end this kind of incident, the military should immediately commence retraining and upskilling of all their intelligence analysts, especially in the areas of target area mapping, human and technical Intelligence data analysis, and of course, there must be consequences for heads of units, and departments who fail to sit up. “

Avele also described as sad the allegations of neglect from the victims.

He urged the FG to direct relevant agencies to get their accurate figures and commence a compensation scheme for them.

Avele said, “It’s a sad development if that’s true. I would expect the Federal Government to immediately direct all relevant agencies, especially NEMA, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, etc to take proper counts and commence a well-coordinated relief. A proper compensation scheme for all affected victims must be done.

“I commend the northern senators for their kind donations. I expect the Chief of Defence Staff, Army, Navy, Air Force, NSA, northern governors, and even the President to follow.”

Measures by the military to stop mishap

The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, said the military would embark on training for its personnel.

Buba added that the military would ensure that air strikes are only ordered when the personnel are 100 percent sure of the target.

He said, “What we are going to do as regards what has happened to prevent it from happening in the future, I can assure you we will make sure that we get more training and make sure that we get more understanding of the processes and protocols involved.

“We will make sure that when something is seen before the order is given to bomb, it will be definitely 100 per cent sure. But for now, we have encouraged communities to see something and say something. Tell us what you are seeing, it will help us in analysing the threat that we see on the ground.” (The PUNCH)

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