The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) chief, Volker Turk, on Wednesday called for independent investigations into reports that separate airstrikes by the Nigerian and Chadian militaries in northern Nigeria killed dozens of civilians.
According to multiple sources cited by AFP, around 100 civilians were killed on Sunday in what is being described as one of the deadliest single days in Nigeria’s long-running conflict with armed groups and criminal gangs.
Amnesty International’s Nigeria office said Nigerian military airstrikes hit a crowded market in Zamfara State, an area reportedly influenced by armed criminal networks, killing “at least 100 civilians.” A resident of a nearby village put the death toll at 117.
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“I am shocked by reports that Nigerian army airstrikes on a market in Zamfara State killed at least 100 civilians on 10 May and injured many more,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement.
Türk also expressed concern over separate reports of civilian casualties following Chadian airstrikes targeting Boko Haram positions on remote islands in the Lake Chad Basin—a vast marshland spanning Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.
The strikes reportedly killed several Nigerian fishermen operating in areas under Boko Haram control, where civilians are often forced to pay levies to the insurgent group. Footage seen by AFP showed injured fishermen with severe burns receiving treatment at a hospital in Bosso, Niger Republic.
“It is crucial that both Nigerian and Chadian authorities conduct prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into these disturbing incidents,” Türk said.
He further urged both militaries to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians, stressing that operations against Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) must comply fully with international humanitarian and human rights law.
“Civilians and civilian objects must never be the target of attack,” he added.
— AFP
