NAF jet mistakenly bombard Katsina village, casualties unknown
By Paul Michael
A jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force reportedly killed an unknown number of villagers on Wednesday after it mistakenly bombarded Kunkuna village in Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State, thereby throwing residents into mourning and agony.
Although information about the incident is still sketchy at press time, it was, however, learned that the pilots of the military jet “accidentally” hit the wrong coordinates while trying to target a bandit camp nearby during a clearance operation.
According to a source within the village, “Kunkuna Village in Katsina State’s Safana Local Government Area received airstrikes from a military jet. Currently, we are unable to confirm the number of fatalities.”
Recall that terrorists had attacked a front team in President Muhammadu Buhari’s convoy on Tuesday in Katsina.
The attack raised dust and the military, which probably felt embarrassed, embarked on a clearance mission.
A source within the military said no fewer than 42 terrorists operating near Zakka and Umadan villages as well as Abdulkareem Camp near Mahuta village, all in Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State were killed following airstrikes launched by the Air Component of Operation Hadarin Daji on 5th and 6th July 2022, respectively.
In the past, villagers in Northeastern Nigeria have reported some civilian casualties from aerial bombardments.
In 2020, a bomb dropped by a military jet defending against a Boko Haram assault landed in a compound where residents were celebrating a child’s baptism.
In April 2021, a fighter jet also on a mission against Boko Haram extremists accidentally bombed soldiers, killing over 20 officers.
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The soldiers from Ngandu village who had been re-enforced were reportedly en route to Mainok, the administrative centre of the Kaga Local Government Area in Borno state, which was being attacked by terrorists from the Boko Haram faction backed by the Islamic State known as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), formerly known as Jam’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihd.
Some of the Chibok schoolgirls who were abducted in 2014 by Boko Haram and released in 2017 claimed that three of their classmates were killed by airstrikes.
Some wedding guests were killed in June 2021 as a result of an offensive aerial bombardment of the NAF Alpha jet carried out in the vicinity of Genu town in Niger State.
A military jet bombed a village in the Yunusari Local Government Area of Yobe State in September 2021, killing about 10 villagers.
A Nigerian community near Lake Chad was bombed by an Air Force jet a few days later.
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