Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has called for an investigation into a military drone attack that the state emergency agency in northern Kaduna state said killed at least 85 people over the weekend.
According to the state’s governor, a religious leader and witnesses, dozens of civilians were killed following the military drone attack that was targeting insurgents and bandits on Sunday night.
The Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday at least 85 people had died during the attack, giving the first official confirmation of the toll from the weekend incident.
“The Northwest Zonal Office has received details from the local authorities that 85 dead bodies have so far been buried while a search is still ongoing,” the agency said.
Tinubu, who is attending the Cop28 Climate Summit in Dubai, said the “bombing mishap” in a village at Tundun Biri, was “very unfortunate, disturbing, and painful,” his spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement.
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“The President directs a thorough and full-fledged investigation into the incident and calls for calm while the authorities look diligently into the mishap,” said Ngelale.
The Air Force has denied taking part in the mission that resulted in Sunday's attack, but the Nigerian Army has not yet commented on the incident.
In addition to fighting Islamist rebels in the northeast for a protracted period with support from the United States, Britain, and other non-Western friends, Nigeria's military has been carrying out lethal aerial attacks in other regions of the nation for years.
Abuja, the capital, is 163 km (101 miles) from Kaduna.
The army and air force have been called upon to combat the growing threat posed by armed criminal gangs that spray towns with bullets and carry out mass kidnappings throughout Nigeria's northwest and central area, including Kaduna state.
