Nigerian Airstrike on Village Market Kills Over 100, Air Force Opens Probe

The Nigerian Air Force has launched an investigation after its aircraft struck Jilli market on Saturday, killing dozens of civilians who had gathered to buy and sell animals, food and household goods. Local residents and Amnesty International report more than 100 people died when bombs fell on the crowded border market between Borno and Yobe states. One survivor, who gave his name only as Ahmed, told Reuters he was standing with about 30 other buyers when the blast threw them to the ground. “I was with about 30 people and we all fell down after being struck,” he said from his hospital bed in Yobe.

Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, speaking for the Air Force, said the strike was “a carefully, well-coordinated planned and intelligence-driven operation” that hit “a known terrorist enclave and logistics hub” near the abandoned village of Jilli. The military statement claimed “scores of terrorists” were killed but made no mention of civilian casualties. The Air Force described Jilli as “long identified as a major terrorist movement corridor and convergence point for Islamic State West Africa Province terrorists and their collaborators.”

Hospitals in Yobe and Borno states are treating waves of injured people, and local councillor Lawan Zanna Nur Geidam said at least eight additional victims died on Sunday. “The total casualties, dead and injured, is around 200,” Geidam told Reuters, adding that many were taken to facilities in Geidam and Maiduguri. Amnesty’s Nigeria director, Isa Sanusi, said the organisation has photographs of the dead that include children and put the confirmed toll at “more than 100 dead” with 35 seriously wounded. “We spoke with the person in charge of casualties, and we spoke with the victims,” Sanusi said.

Nigeria’s north-east has seen repeated cases in which military air operations meant for Islamist insurgents instead strike markets, villages or camps for displaced people. The Air Force has sent a fact-finding team to Jilli, but previous investigations have rarely led to public accountability or compensation for victims’ families. Saturday’s bombing is the deadliest such incident reported this year in the region.