Airstrike Tragedy in Zamfara Was Not Intentional – Gov Lawal
Zamfara Governor Dauda Lawal on said Wednesday that the recent military airstrikes in the northwestern state were unintentional. Governor Lawal said this in an interview with Channels Television’s “Politics Today” and sympathized with the families of the victims of the incident. ‘It was unintentional. They were attacked while fighting bandits.
The Air Force Chief of Staff has set up a committee to offer condolences to the state government and those affected. They were on the ground yesterday to assess on the ground who was involved and what happened, and to use this as a guide to prevent future occurrences.
He said he was aware of the military’s operations before the tragedy occurred and said he personally invited the Air Force to neutralize the bandits who were attacking the area. During the program, the governor expressed hope that the military would have all the capabilities to tackle the bandit activity within a month.
The governor said that the days of notorious bandit leader Bello Turji were numbered, and that he would soon be eliminated, just as other bandit leaders had been neutralized.
On January 11, a military airstrike destroyed the Tungar Kala community in the Maradun autonomous region of Zamfara, killing 16 More than 16 residents were killed. Concerned by the situation, the Nigerian Air Force dispatched a fact-finding team to investigate the tragedy of the recent military airstrike in the state.
The team met with Governor Lawal at Government House in Gusau on Tuesday. Security officials are battling bandits who are terrorizing the northwestern and central provinces. The bandits raid villages, burn homes, and kill and kidnap residents for ransom.
Several airstrikes have occurred in recent months, including an attack on Christmas Day that killed at least 10 civilians in neighboring Sokoto state; in 2023, at least 85 civilians, mostly women and children, attending a Muslim religious rally in a village in Kaduna state were mistaken for bandits and killed In January 2017, at least 112 people were killed when a jet plane hit a camp housing 40,000 people displaced by jihadist violence in a town near the Cameroon border.
