The UN rights chief on Wednesday demanded independent investigations into reports that separate airstrikes by the Nigerian and Chadian armies in northern Nigeria killed dozens of civilians.
The Nigerian military and the “bandit” gangs it is fighting killed around 100 civilians on Sunday in one of the bloodiest single days of the country’s conflict against armed groups, sources across the country told AFP.
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Amnesty International’s Nigeria chapter said that Nigerian military airstrikes on a crowded market in the northwestern Zamfara state, reportedly controlled by criminal gangs, had killed “at least 100 civilians”.
A resident of a nearby village put the toll at 117.
“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,” United Nations high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk said in a statement.
The Nigerian military said it targeted a “confirmed terrorist structure, occupied exclusively by armed non-state actors who posed a direct… threat to civilian lives”.
It disputed the civilian tolls being cited by the media as “unverified”, adding “any incidents of civilian casualties will be communicated to the public appropriately”.
“No credible, substantiated evidence of civilian casualties has been established through any official assessment or independent verification,” the military said in a statement dated Tuesday but released on Wednesday.
Volker also said he was “alarmed and saddened” by the reports of high civilian casualties in attacks since Friday by Chadian fighter jets against Boko Haram camps on remote islands in the vast marshland shared by Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
The bombardment has reportedly killed dozens of Nigerian fishermen working on islands under Boko Haram control, where civilians are forced to pay taxes to the jihadist group.
Footage seen by AFP showed several fishermen with severe burns being treated at a hospital in Bosso, Niger.
“It is crucial that both Nigerian and Chadian authorities conduct prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into these disturbing incidents,” Turk said.
The authorities in the two countries must also “ensure that those responsible for any violations are held to account, in accordance with international standards”, he insisted.
The UN rights chief said he “urgently (called) on both militaries to take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians”.
“Their military operations, including against Boko Haram and the so-called ‘Islamic State West Africa Province’ must be conducted in full compliance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” he said.
“Civilians and civilian objects must never be the target of attack.”
