NINE people were killed and 23 injured in a village in Nigeria’s northeastern Yobe State that was hit by an airstrike by the Nigerian air force, which is battling Islamist insurgents in the area, the state’s emergency response agency has announced.
The air force said earlier it may have killed and injured civilians while pursuing insurgents in Yobe and that it was investigating the incident.
Earlier, an air force spokesman said a fighter jet responded to intelligence on suspicious movements of suspected insurgents from either the Boko Haram group or ISWAP on Wednesday and fired “some probing shots”, killing and injuring civilians in the process.
“Unfortunately reports reaching Nigerian Air Force headquarters alleged that some civilians were erroneously killed while others were injured,” he said in a statement.
“Therefore a board of inquiry has been set up to thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the incident.”
Three residents in Yobe’s Yunasari local government area told Reuters that the air force jet had flown over the village on Wednesday morning before there were explosions
“We saw it hovering around the village and suddenly we heard two loud bangs,” resident Ibrahim Goni told Reuters by phone.
One resident said he had lost four of his relatives while another said his mother and niece had died in the incident.
At least 45 people had been and were taken to Gaidam General Hospital in Yobe, the three residents said.
Nigeria’s war with Boko Haram and ISWAP has spawned one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with millions of people dependent on aid.
