Nigeria Military Reacts To Civilian Fishermen Air Strike Casualty Claims
LAGOS OCTOBER 1ST (NEWSRANGERS)-Nigeria’s military said Thursday it carried out a “precise and professionally executed” air strike on a jihadist camp in the Lake Chad area where locals and security sources said 20 fishermen were killed this week.
The fishermen were killed in the bombardment on Sunday on Daban Masara in Lake Chad, which straddles Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, according to local fishermen and security sources.
The area is a known bastion for the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), one of the jihadist forces fighting in Nigeria’s 12-year Islamist insurgency in the northeast.
The air force statement did not give any details about casualties or a figure, but said people with “combat vests and ISWAP-styled uniforms were seen” at the camp, where no fishing activities were going on.
“Having carefully ascertained that nearby civilian settlements were not in the line of fire and a precision strike would disrupt ISWAP logistics movement and neutralise them, a decision was made to conduct a strike,” the statement said.
“Although casualty figures could not be ascertained, the strike was verified to be successful in disrupting ISWAP logistics movement and foot soldiers.”
Security sources and locals say ISWAP has invited fishermen and farmers to return to territory it controls in the Lake Chad area where it collects taxes as part of consolidating control since the death of rival Boko Haram jihadist commander Abubakar Shekau in May.
The military statement said “necessary steps were taken to ensure that the presence of the terrorists was ascertained and the strike was precise and professionally executed.”
Reports of civilian casualties came less than two weeks after another Nigerian air strike on a village in nearby Yobe state killed at least nine civilian residents, according to officials.
The Nigerian air force said at the time that its fighter jet was going after a group of jihadists in the area. It has said it is investigating that incident.
Since 2009, Nigeria’s armed forces have battled a jihadist rebellion in the northeast that has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced nearly two million from their homes.
In January 2017 at least 112 people were killed when a fighter jet struck a camp housing 40,000 people displaced by violence in Rann near the border with Cameroon.
Nigeria’s military blamed “lack of appropriate marking of the area” for the bombardment in a report it issued six months later.
AFP
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