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Almost six months ago, a Nigerian military drone carried out an airstrike in Kwatiri, a small settlement in Nigeria’s Nasarawa State. The strike hit a group of cattle herders, killing 39 people and wounding six others.
Only recently did Nigeria’s air force own up to the strike, and it did so only in response to an inquiry from Human Rights Watch. The military was allegedly acting on reports of suspected terrorist activity in the area.
The Nigerian military has provided little information and no justice to the victims of the attack and their families. The military’s failure in owning up to the killing and injuring of dozens of civilians only compounds the attacks’ tragedy.
Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed 12 people, including survivors of the January 24 airstrike and family members. They also reviewed photos showing bloodied bodies and visited a mass grave where 31 victims are buried.
HRW took its findings to the Nigerian air force, which admitted to carrying out an operation in the area abased on “credible intelligence” and surveillance footage showing the movement of “suspected terrorists.” But it failed to address other key questions, such as how information regarding the suspected threat was verified, whether efforts were made to investigate and verify the identity of those targeted, or if any assessment was carried out before the airstrike to avoid or mitigate civilian harm.
Violent disputes over the use of natural resources between nomadic herders have escalated in Nasarawa and other states in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and Northwest region. The violence, along with a host of other exacerbating factors, has given rise to criminal groups, or bandits, who are associated with herder-allied militias. Security forces carry out land and air operations to counter the activities of bandits.
Since 2017, over 300 people have reportedly been killed by airstrikes that the Nigerian air force claimed were intended for bandits or members of the Islamist armed group Boko Haram, but instead hit civilians.
Some of the herders HRW spoke to after the attack believe they were intentionally targeted following a dispute with local authorities over cattle grazing in which they were fined and had 1,000 cattle seized. After they paid the fine, they were instructed to take their cattle back via truck. The first truck arrived in Kwatiri shortly before the airstrike.
Victims want justice. “We did not kill anybody, we were not doing anything illegal, so why were our people killed, who killed them?”, asked one man who lost nine family members in the attack. “There should be answers.”
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