Nigerian Air Force belatedly owns up to airstrike that killed 39 along Nasarawa-Benue border - Report

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HRW says although Nigerian authorities admitted carrying out the raid, they evaded “key questions” concerning the circumstances surrounding the attack.

The organisation, which investigates and reports on human rights abuses worldwide, said its investigations confirmed 39 persons were killed and six others injured in the airstrike that occurred on 24 January.HRW, a not-for-profit organisation, said in a statement announcing the release of its new report on Tuesday that “Nigerian authorities have provided little information and no justice” with regard to the airstrike.

But almost six months after the incident, the Nigerian air force admitted for the first time, in response to an enquiry from Human Rights Watch, to carrying out the airstrike,According to the report, the Nigerian Air Force explained that it was an air component of its Operation Whirl Stroke – a joint operation involving military, police, and State Security Service – conducted in response to security problems in and around Nasarawa State.

The rights body further said it “reviewed and verified eight photographs showing some of the bodies and on March 14 visited a mass grave where 31 bodies were buried.” According to the military’s explanation, the air force surveillance footage showed the movement of “suspected terrorists” who converged around “a truck suspected to be a logistics vehicle,” which arrived at the location at night and was determined to be a target for the airstrike.

But the Nasarawa State police command spokesperson, Ramhan Nansel, insisted on Wednesday that the Nigerian police had yet to ascertain those responsible for the airstrike. In July 2017, a military airstrike on Ran IDP camp in Borno State, North-east Nigeria, killed scores of people.Nigerian Air ForceIn April 2019, an airstrike on Tangaram, a community in Zamfara State, North-west Nigeria, killed a little girl and left another injured.

 

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