UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk on May 14 called for independent investigations into reports that separate airstrikes by Nigerian and Chadian forces in northern Nigeria killed over 100 civilians.
According to allegations by Amnesty International, Nigerian military and armed groups killed at least 100 civilians on May 10 in Zamfara state, northwestern Nigeria. Many of the victims were women and children, and the incident occurred at a crowded market in the village of Tumfa.
Mr. Turk said he was “shocked” by the information and also “alarmed and saddened” by reports of civilian casualties in Chad’s airstrikes targeting Boko Haram camps on remote islands in the Lake Chad region, which borders Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Chad’s bombings are said to have killed dozens of Nigerian fishermen working on islands controlled by Boko Haram. The victims, suffering severe burns, are being treated at a hospital in Bosso, Niger, according to footage verified by AFP.
Mr. Turk stressed: “It is essential that both Nigerian and Chadian authorities conduct prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into these troubling incidents.” He also urged military forces “to take all feasible precautions to avoid harming civilians” and to comply with international humanitarian law.
For its part, the Nigerian military on May 13 stated there is no evidence of civilian casualties in the attacks in northwestern Zamfara this month, calling the reports of high death tolls unverified and misleading. A spokesman for the Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Michael Onoja, argued that the airstrike was conducted in accordance with international humanitarian law and targeted “a confirmed high-level meeting” in a village where “many terrorists were neutralised.”
