Several civilians are said to have died and been injured as a result of military airstrikes on suspected terrorists on Sunday in the Mutumji hamlet in the Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State in northwest Nigeria.
Residents of the troublesome neighborhood claimed that a military air fighter plane was pursuing terrorists when it crashed into a local market.
Locals said that the military fought in a two-day gunfight at Malele Community with the suspected terrorists, forcing them to retreat into Mutumji Community.
Residents of the impacted neighborhood claimed to have heard a loud bomb sound while visiting the market after spotting an aircraft circling nearby.
One of the community members who managed to flee the airstrikes, Saidu Ishaka, said how the vibration caused him to trip twice, and when he got up, he discovered a number of dead bodies on the ground.
He acknowledged that some of the injured were transported to Gusau’s Yariman Bakura Specialist Hospital.
Nuhu Dansadau, a resident of the Dansadau Emirate, claimed that the terrorists organised more people to assault the Malele neighborhood after the locals called for help and the military arrived quickly.
When DIG Mammam Tsafe (rtd), the commissioner for security and home affairs for the Zamfara State, visited the injured patients at the state specialist hospital, he strongly denounced the murder and encouraged the military to move quickly to eliminate the alleged terrorists.
According to the military, the claim that some civilians were killed during a bombardment by the Nigerian Air Force on Sunday in Zamfara State is inaccurate.
Major General Uwem Bassey, the theatre commander for Operation Hadarin Daji, claimed there was no such thing.
“When the Armed Forces are making successes, it is for the good of the citizens,” he said.
Bassey also said the reported killing of residents is only intended to take the sail from the successes by the military.
“Most of them are being fed by the enemies of the state, the adversary. Have they told you today in that hitting, how many of their kingpins have been hit? They want to take the sail away from the successes. They want to create confusion,” Bassey said.
