A Nigerian military airstrike targeting Islamist militants has reportedly struck a crowded market in the country's northeast, with conflicting accounts emerging about the number of civilian casualties.
According to local reports and the Reuters news agency, the attack occurred Saturday near the border between Yobe and Borno states while aircraft were conducting operations against insurgents in the area. The Nigerian Air Force confirmed conducting "mop-up" strikes on "identified terrorist locations" within the Jilli axis of Borno State but has not acknowledged hitting the market or confirmed any casualties.
"It's a very devastating incident," said Lawan Zanna Nur Geidam, a councillor in Yobe's Geidam district, who reported that injured victims had been transported to hospitals in both Yobe and Borno states.
Casualty figures vary dramatically between sources. Reuters, citing the councillor, three residents, and an international humanitarian agency official, reported at least 200 people killed. Meanwhile, Nigerian newspapers the Sun and Punch cited sources claiming 10 fatalities with "several" injuries, while the Daily Trust reported an eyewitness account of at least 56 dead and 14 hospitalized.
The Yobe State Emergency Management Agency acknowledged receiving "preliminary reports" of an incident at Jilli Market in the Gubio local government area that "reportedly resulted in casualties affecting some marketers." The agency stated that emergency response teams had been deployed but noted that "details regarding the nature of the incident and the number of casualties remain unverified."
Ahmed Ali, a 43-year-old market trader, described the terrifying moment of the explosion to Reuters: "I became so scared and attempted to run away, but a friend dragged me and we all lay on the ground."
Amnesty International's Nigeria branch condemned the strike, which it said had killed "over 100 people." In a statement on social media platform X, the organization declared: "Launching air raids is not a legitimate law enforcement method by anyone's standard. Such reckless use of deadly force is unlawful, outrageous and lays bare the Nigerian military's shocking disregard for the lives of those it supposedly exists to protect."
The incident occurred in a region at the center of Nigeria's long-running Boko Haram insurgency, which has displaced over two million people and claimed thousands of lives. This marks the latest in a series of recent years where military air operations against Islamist insurgents have mistakenly struck civilians in villages, displacement camps, and markets across Nigeria's northeast.