THE people of Tudun-Biri, in Igabi Local Government area of Kaduna State on December 3rd had gathered to celebrate the birthday of Prophet Muhammed, (SAW). It was a night to rejoice and make merry. A yearly celebration in which both the young and the old take part. It is customary to cook, eat, dance and recite the Holy Qur’an, and after that, ask God for fruitful harvest and a prosperous community for the coming year. Majority of the people are farmers who are proud of what they do. However, this year’s celebration turned into one that they won’t forget in a hurry.
The merrymaking was in full swing when, at exactly 9.45 PM, merchant of death in form of a bomb dropped from the sky, turning the whole scene into a horror movie. There was chaos everywhere. Children wailing, women and toddlers crying bitterly. Naturally, survivors started looking for their loved ones. Calls were made to neigbouring villages for help. Identifying and carrying dead bodies and helping those injured was their main priority at that time. In the midst of the confusion, a second bomb dropped at around 11 PM, killing many of the responders from nearby villages and those that survived the first attack.
After the second bomb, many of the survivors ran for cover and stayed hidden in the bushes and nearby houses for hours. Nobody was willing to assist the injured at this time, for fear of more eventualities. Due to this, many of the injured were left for dead. When few summoned the courage to return to the scene, dead bodies littered the whole area. There were shattered limbs and heads. The gruesome process of gathering body parts into bags and using leaves to cover dead bodies took the entire night, and by the time the dust settled, over 80 indigenes of the community had been dispatched to the great beyond.
Scores were also injured. They were rushed to hospitals but most succumbed to their injuries and the death toll rose sharply. So did the anger of the survivors when they learnt that the military was behind their ordeal. How did the military that was supposed to protect them from bandits and terrorists also become their tormentor?
The Nigerian Airforce was quick to wash its hands off the carnage. However, the Army soon own up to their misdeed, the killings of Nigerians on their own soil. The Army claimed that they saw the celebration and mistook the celebrants for insurgents in the area. It wasted no time in getting drones midair and dropping bombs on the celebrants.
As at last week Saturday, the death toll had climbed to over 120. With the dead buried in a mass grave, anger has taken over the community, with many calling for a thorough investigation into the misadventure. President Bola Tinubu has promised to do just that. He has also dispatched Vice President Kassim Shettima to Kaduna to commiserate with the people of, douse tension, and plead for forgiveness on behalf of the military.
The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoreed Lagbaja, and Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru have all been to the community to access the damage, commiserate with the people, and also assure them that there won’t be a repeat.
However, what is uppermost in the minds of the people of Tudun-Biri is for the government to institute a probe into the misadventure and for those responsible for turning their joyful celebrations into mourning be brought to book. They were equivocal about that. President Tinubu has assured the people that full scale investigation would be launched to unravel those behind the accidental bombing and that appropriate punishment would be meted to them.
Indeed, it is time for our military to sit up and start getting their target rights. There has been too much ‘friendly fire’ which has led to the death of many innocent Nigerians. Between 2017 and now, over 400 innocent lives have been lost to accidental bombings by military personnel. States in the North that have been worst-hit by this friendly fire, include Niger, Yobe, Zamfara, Borno, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Katsina States.
The incident of January this year is still fresh in the memory of the people in a border town linking Benue and Nasarawa States at Doma Local Government Area, when military men dropped a bomb that killed 37 people, including 27 pastoralists. In April 2022, a NAF fighter jet reportedly killed six children, when it fired a bomb targeted at terrorists in Kurebe village in Shiroro Local Government area of Niger State.
Again, in June 2022, 13 residents were injured while one died after a NAF fighter jet struck Kunkuna Village in the Safana Local Government area of Katsina State. On January 17, 2017, about 52 people were killed in Borno State while 120 others sustained injuries in an accidental airstrike at an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp in Rann. Also, on April 13, 2020, 17 people, including children, were killed after a NAF fighter jet bombed Sakotoku village in Damnoa Local Government Area of the state. It is unconscionable that the Nigerian military continues to kill people who are trying to go about their lives in erroneous air strikes. This trend calls for much needed scrutiny into the activities of our security forces to prevent any further killings and provide redress for the victims.
Kaduna state is just like most of the states in the North west and the North eastern zones of the country now ruled by bandits and terrorists that are ready to kill, pilfer, and kidnap for ransom. For more than 10 years since the military have been on the trail of these terrorists, many innocent lives have been lost during air strikes that security forces claim were intended for bandits or members of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, but instead hit local populations. The authorities have taken no concrete actions to avoid repeats to ensure that its operations going forward protect civilians, or to provide justice or accountability over past unfortunate incidents.
This concern was echoed by the international community, particularly the United States of America, when the Federal Government was shopping for sophisticated military weapons to deal with the Boko Haram insurgency. While trying to purchase some Tucano jets in 2017, two US Senators, Cory Booker and Rand Pail raised alarm to then Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, over possible misuse of the aircrafts. The Senators cited multiple incidents in which the Nigerian military had flouted the laws of war, leading to concerns around how the additional weapons would be put to use.
Booker was then a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy. The Senators urged Tillerson to require the Nigerian government to demonstrate progress in investigating previous incidents before completing the aircraft sale. “We are concerned that the decision to proceed with this sale will empower the government to backtrack even further on its commitments to human rights, accountability, and upholding international humanitarian law, which in turn could spur greater unrest and violence, particularly in the Northeastern part of the country”, they wrote.
Earlier in 2015, some international organisations had found the General Officer in Command of the Nigerian Army to have launched an unjustified attack against a group of Shia Muslims, leading to a massacre of at least 347 Nigerians. That was when Shiite members blocked a major road which led to a confrontation between its members and the Army.
With the attack on Tudun-Biri, it is time for the military to reassess its training module and ensure that those that would man its aircrafts have undergone serious training in identifying terrorists’ camps and are armed with intel before dropping bombs on their targets. All arms of the military need to work as a team, particularly in intelligence gathering and sharing, to ensure that the targets identified are those of the enemy to minimise civilian casualties.
President Bola Tinubu has promised that the culprits behind the deadly attack would be identified and punished.
That would be a welcome development and it would serve as a tonic to those who have lost loved ones in the rather unfortunate incident. There are families who lost three and more members to the deadly bombing. Compensation should also be paid to them for the lives lost and limbs shattered. Nigerian security forces are bound under International Human Rights Law to use force only if unavoidable, and even then, with restraint and in proportion to the circumstances. Intentional use of firearms should only be employed when strictly unavoidable to protect life.
If, however, the violence involving bandits arises to protracted armed violence between government authorities and organised armed groups, it may amount to a non-international armed conflict. If that is the case, Nigerian authorities are required under international humanitarian law, which governs the use of force in armed conflicts, to take all feasible precautions to minimise attacks on civilians, including the prohibition of attacks in which there is no military target.
While we commend the military for their sacrifices in defending the territorial integrity of our nation, the needless waste of civilian lives is what we should all work towards minimising. It is time for the President to put a stop to the rivalry between the Army and the Air force on who should be in charge while on air missions. They are both working towards the same goal. We should eliminate bandits and terrorists, not decimate our people.
See you next week.
Akintunde is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Glittersonline newspaper. His syndicated column, Monday Discourse, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.