Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday called for a thorough investigation into a military drone attack that killed at least 85 people over the weekend, CNN reports.
The state governor, a religious leader and eyewitnesses told on Monday that dozens of civilians were killed in a military drone attack targeting insurgents and bandits on Sunday night.
On Tuesday, the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency said at least 85 people were killed in the attack, the first official confirmation of the death toll from the weekend incident. The agency said:
“The Northwest Zonal Office has received details from the local authorities that 85 dead bodies have so far been buried while search is still ongoing.”
Tinubu said the “explosion accident” at Tundun Biri village was “very unfortunate, disturbing and painful,” his spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement. He added:
“The President directs a thorough and full-fledged investigation into the incident and calls for calm while the authorities look diligently into the mishap.”
The Nigerian army is yet to comment on the incident, but the air force has denied involvement in the mission that led to Sunday’s attack.
The Nigerian military, backed by the United States, Britain and other non-Western allies in the long war against Islamist insurgents in the northeast, has for years carried out deadly air strikes in other parts of the country as well.
In addition to the war zone in the northeast, the army and air force are called upon to confront a growing threat in Nigeria’s northwest and central region, including Kaduna state, posed by armed criminal gangs that raid villages and carry out mass kidnappings.
