Nigerian military airstrike mistakenly wipes out family of 6 in Katsina

At least six civilians were killed after a Nigerian Army jet mistakenly bombed a village while pursuing armed gangs in northern Nigeria’s Katsina State.

Local residents reported on Sunday that the incident took place on Saturday in Zakka village, Safana district, where a military jet dropped a bomb on a group of huts at the village’s outskirts, according to three witnesses.

The airstrike came after armed bandits attacked a police base in the area, killing two policemen and a vigilante, the sources said.

The jet deployed after the bandits had withdrawn and circled the village before striking a cluster of huts belonging to a family outside the village,” Muntari Sada, a resident of Zakka, told AFP.

According to Sada, six family members were killed in the blast, and their remains had to be gathered in bags for burial.

Meanwhile, his account was corroborated by two other residents who confirmed the casualty toll.

This is not the first time in which Katsina residents would lose their lives in accidental airstrikes.

In January, a military airstrike in northwestern Zamfara State killed at least 16 people after an army jet mistakenly targeted local vigilantes, believing them to be criminal gangs in the Zurmi district.

A month earlier, in December, a military jet killed 10 people and injured six others when it struck two villages while bombing suspected jihadist positions in Sokoto State.

Also in December 2023, a Nigerian military airstrike in the Tudun Biri community of northwestern Kaduna State mistakenly hit a Muslim religious gathering, killing at least 85 people, mostly women and children.

In July, 2022, at least two persons were killed after a military fighter jet dropped a bomb in Kunkunni village of same Safana Local Government Area.

One of the deadliest incidents occurred in January 2017, when a fighter jet mistakenly bombed a displacement camp in Rann, near the Cameroon border, killing at least 112 people.

The camp had been sheltering around 40,000 people displaced by jihadist violence

Meanwhile, all efforts to get reaction regarding the Saturday’s attack from the police and military proved abortive.