Nigeria’s military killed more than 100 people on Sunday in airstrikes on a crowded village market in the country’s northwest, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
The strikes at Tumfa market in the state of Zamfara, which the rights group said had also wounded dozens of villagers, appeared to be the latest in a series of attacks carried out by the military on markets and villages in northern and central Nigeria. The region has been plagued by violence in recent months, much of it involving clashes between the military and terrorist groups.
Last month, dozens of people were killed in airstrikes on Jilli, a village in the northeast. A military spokesman said the target was a terrorist logistics hub in an abandoned village, but residents described it as a thriving market patronized by many civilians.
Over the weekend, the Nigerian military acknowledged carrying out airstrikes on villages in Shiroro, an area in the state of Niger. The military said it had killed about 70 people, who it said were bandits. But Amnesty said at least six civilians were among the dead, and it posted pictures of injured children on X.
A military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the strikes on Tumfa market described by Amnesty.
The rights group’s Nigeria office said in a statement that military aircraft had bombed the market when it was “full of people and without warning.” It added, “The scene was chaotic. There were screams, blood and bodies all over the ground.”