ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s military has acknowledged that an airstrike targeting a Lakurawa group hideout in the northwestern state of Sokoto had killed 10 civilians due to secondary explosions, army spokesperson Edward Buba said on Friday.
The military late on Wednesday said it had struck targets in the vicinity of Gidan Bisa and Gidan Runtuwa identified as associated with the Lakurawa group, but did not provide any details on civilians affected.
Sokoto state governor Ahmed Aliyu on Wednesday said 10 people had died and several wounded after a military fighter jet pursuing bandits mistakenly bombed civilians.
“The air strike on the terrorist arms cache and logistics dump led to other secondary explosions causing hoarded munitions to explode in different directions that resulted in 10 deaths,” Buba said in a statement.
It added that efforts were ongoing to determine whether the civilians were collaborators with the insurgents. The spokesperson said “troops will continue to take painstaking measures to avoid civilian casualties.”
Buba said the village was a high-concentration hideout for the Lakurawa group.
Last month, the military warned that a new insurgent group,
Lakurawa, was infiltrating the country’s northwest region from neighbouring Niger and Mali.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh,; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha,; Editing by Louise Heavens)
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