The toll is extremely heavy. A Nigerian army drone accidentally killed at least 85 civilians on Sunday in a village in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kaduna, emergency officials said Tuesday, in one of the country’s deadliest military air strike accidents.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu also ordered an investigation on Tuesday after the army admitted that one of its drones had accidentally struck the village of Tudun Biri while residents were celebrating a Muslim festival. The army did not give casualty figures, but residents said 85 people, many of them women and children, were killed.
Around sixty injured in hospital
“The North West Zonal Office has received information from local authorities that 85 bodies have been buried so far, while searches continue,” said the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) in a press release. Nema said 66 other people were being treated in hospital, but emergency officials were still negotiating with local traditional leaders to ease tensions and be able to reach the village.
“President Tinubu describes the incident as very unfortunate, disturbing and painful, and expresses his outrage and sorrow at the tragic loss of Nigerian lives,” the presidency said in a statement.
Nigeria’s armed forces often resort to airstrikes in their fight against militias known as “bandits” in the northwest and northeast of the country, where jihadists have been waging a 14-year conflict.