SINCE last week, the country has struggled to come to terms with the accidental bombing of innocent civilians in Tudun Biri, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State by the Nigerian Army. The victims were bombed twice and the death toll has surpassed 120. An air strike intended to neutralise terrorists had on Sunday, December 3, accidentally hit civilians during a religious celebration. Following the incident, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, apologised for the bombing, saying that the army acted on intelligence but missed the target, describing the incident as highly regrettable. He addded that going forward, the military would fine-tune its operations to forestall a recurrence of such incidents. His words: “Mistakes are human and it is highly regrettable. We will make amends and ensure we look back and see where these mistakes came from, and then to be able to make sure that we get rid of them properly.” The Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Taoreed Lagbaja, also visited the area on a condolence visit on December 5, describing the incident as regrettable.
The army chief apologised on behalf of the Nigerian Army to the community, the government and the people of Kaduna State, promising to guard against a recurrence in the conduct of military operations. He said: “We will do everything possible to prevent such an occurrence from happening again in the conduct of our operations going forward.” The army chief, who was accompanied by principal staff officers from the army headquarters and the General Officer Commanding 1 Division, also met with the Dangaladima Zazau, the District Head of Rigasa, Architect Aminu Idris and members of the community. In a similar vein, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) explained that the military presumed that terrorists, who were in the habit of using civilians as shields, were operating at the time. It regretted the civilian casualties, adding that it always did its best to distinguish between civilians and terrorists. It said the suspicious movement of the celebrating crowd had posed a major threat in an area notorious for terrorist activities, thus propelling the drone attack.
Following the incident, President Bola Tinubu ordered an investigation into the incident. He described the incident as “very unfortunate, disturbing, and painful,” expressing indignation and grief over the tragic loss of Nigerian lives. The president also sent Vice President Kashim Shettima on a condolence visit to the state, and subsequently assured that there would be consequences for the action. He also sympathised with the victims during a subsequent visit to Borno State. On his part, the Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, also ordered a full investigation into the incident, reassuring the citizens that their security and protection would be prioritised in the sustained fight against terrorists, bandits and other criminals.
Naturally, the incident attracted condemnations from the political and cultural association, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Jama’tu Nasril Islam (JNI), as well as sociocultural and human rights groups. The incident is of course distressing: beyond the dead, a lot of people have been maimed for life. This particular incident is most tragic given the number of casualties, and considering the fact that there had been series of such accidental bombings in the past. In 2021, 20 soldiers died in Mainok, Borno State, when a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jet accidentally bombed the military camp. Earlier this year, the NAF conducted a ill-fated strike on Kwatiri, a Nasarawa village. About 39 persons were killed and six others injured. There is nothing to cheer in the fact that between February 2014 when a military aircraft dropped a bomb on Daglun in Borno State, killing 20 civilians, and September 2022, there were at least 14 documented cases of accidental bombings in residential areas.
There is something negative to be said about the incessant mistaken bombings of innocent citizens. These incidents border on a definite lack of thoroughness based on adequate intelligence. For every time that there had been talk of regrettable mistakes, there had never been any effort to make public what kind of mistake was revealed through review and what the proposed remedial steps were. The terrible culture of just moving on after every storm has to be curbed. This unaccountable system explains why there has not been noticeable improvement in the security situation in the country in spite of the spectacles staged by a medley of security agencies. There is more to governance than leaving things to chance and pretending that all will be well without following a defined procedure. At the end of the day, where nothing, including security response, is well organised, the country will only continue to dance around in circles.
We sympathise with the families of the victims and the military over this incident. There was apparently no ill intention by the military. However, we call for a thorough review of procedure. We acknowledge the fact that no system is fool-proof, but we believe that the ability to correct mistakes matters a lot. There must be a way of averting such calamities in the future, and to actualise that, the government must ensure a thorough investigation of the current case. We hope that the heightened outrage attending the latest killings will spur a genuine review of operational procedure and a proper commitment to goals in undertaking security operations.
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