According to eyewitnesses, cited by the media on Tuesday, as a result of an air raid on a city in the north of the country, carried out on Sunday by the Nigerian air force, up to several dozen civilians were killed.
“On Sunday, two planes dropped bombs on the Daban Masara fish market,” a man named Husaini, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters in a telephone conversation.
“50 people died on the spot, including my friend, who was married for three weeks,” the man added.
Fishing Penalty?
Another resident stressed in an interview with Reuters that the explosion was in revenge for the fishing trip, despite the government’s ban.
“The government believes the fish proceeds are being used to fund the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), a splinter jihadist faction of Boko Haram,” he said.
He claims that after the attack, he saw about 60 bodies of the victims collected in one place.
In its report, the UN mission said that one of the fishermen was killed and six were injured. The report contains no information on dozens of victims of the air strikes.
Authorities shy away from answering
Reuters recalls that in 2017, under the leadership of President Donald Trump, Nigeria acquired several light A-29 Super Tucanos fighters. The main feature of these machines is the ability to take off and land in difficult terrain. The contract for the purchase of these aircraft was frozen in the days of Barack Obama after the Nigeria airstrike on a refugee camp, which killed at least 170 people.
The agency notes that there is no indication of the use of recently acquired state of the art aircraft, but it claims that it cannot be ruled out either. Despite numerous appeals, the Nigerian authorities did not respond to Reuters questions about Sunday’s bombing.
In Nigeria, where the army and police forces are often attacked by militants of the West African Islamic State, the uprising has been going on for 12 years, killing more than 40,000 people.