Jilli market bombs

The furore over penultimate Saturday’s air strikes on Jilli market, Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe State, highlights the difficulties in combating insurgency in areas where local residents co-habit with terrorists.

The Nigerian military had in conjunction with the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai, launched coordinated bomb strikes on suspected terrorists in Jilli market located along the borders of Borno and Yobe states. Jilli is reputed as a major crossing point for Boko Haram and Islamic State for West Africa Province (ISWAP).

When the military set out to haul bombs inside the market, they aimed at dismantling the fighting power of the terrorists given their renewed onslaughts against military formations in recent times. The military may have been guided in undertaking the operation by the 2018 encounter when their base in Jilli was attacked by Boko Haram insurgents.

Many soldiers including officers reportedly lost their lives in that encounter. The attack came about a month after the military deployed 81 Brigade at Jilli because of its strategic importance to insurgents crossing from Kukareta to Geidam. Though the military disputed the casualty figures when the base was attacked, there has been no military presence there since then.

 This may have accounted for the option of air strikes. Allegations of huge civilian casualties have thrown spanners into the wheels of what should otherwise have been a successful military engagement.

Locals and survivors said they usually go to Jilli market to buy and sell livestock and that they were on their normal businesses when the jets began to drop bombs. Estimates put the number of civilian casualties at about 100 even as a local councillor, Zanna Nur Geidam said the number of the dead and injured is in the region of 200.

The propriety of the air strikes has come under serious scrutiny given the level of civilian casualties. If the military had credible intelligence before the operation, what accounts for the high level of civilian casualties? Or is the line between the civilian population and the insurgents so faint as not to distinguish between the two?

These questions arise because of the stout defence presented by the military for the bomb strikes. In their reaction to mounting criticisms, the military had said without ambiguity that their action was based on credible intelligence. According to them, Jilli had long been identified as a major terrorist movement corridor and convergence point for ISWAP and their collaborators.

They described the air strike as a “carefully well-coordinated, planned and intelligence-driven operation” It is a successfully conducted “precision air strike on known terrorist enclave and logistic hub located near the abandoned village of Jilli”.

Their records showed that scores of terrorists were killed in the strike. Could the scores of terrorists killed by the bomb strikes be the same people termed civilians? That is the puzzle? But in this puzzle, lies the difficulty in prosecuting the war against insurgency in situations where civilians are unwilling to expose those in their midst levying mayhem on the rest of the society.

The military may have had credible intelligence on the presence of the terrorists in Jilli market. But the difficulty in differentiating between unarmed terrorists and the civilian population should have called for a higher degree of caution. Bombing a bubbling market under whatever guise is bound to generate condemnations as the instant case has shown.

 Governor Babagana Zulu of Borno State threw his weight in support of the strike on two grounds. He corroborated the position of the military that the location is a known logistic base for terrorists. In addition, he said the market was shut five years ago by the state government due to security concerns.

But some of the victims have different notions about the Jilli market bomb encounter. One of the injured receiving treatment at a hospital said he went to the market to buy livestock when he was hit. “I was with about 30 people and we all fell down after being struck”, he recounted. A 43-year old trader, Ahmed Ali said he was injured in the blast. “I became so scared and attempted to run away. But a friend dragged me down and we lay on the ground”. Ali said he may have been dead if not for the quick intervention of the friend that pulled him down to take cover.

That is the level of disagreement on the actual casualties arising from the strike in Jilli market.  It raises questions over the accuracy of military operations, civilian safety and the place of intelligence in the war against the cascading insurgency.

How and when the Jilli market resume operations after being shut down five years ago remains to be established. But the incident exposes the dearth of intelligence in an area considered strategic enough to have had a military base established there before re-deploying after the attack.  

This is not the first time the military would be caught in such controversy. In December 2023, there was uproar when drone strikes launched by the military in Tudun Biri in the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State killed over 100 innocent villagers.

The villagers who were observing a Muslim festival suddenly came under intense attacks. Before they could even understand what was happening, many of them lay dead on the ground. Their situation was compounded by a second drone strike as those who rushed to the scene to offer help to the injured were again bombed leading to more casualties.

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The army took responsibility for the strikes after an initial gap created by conflicting statements. They explained that they targeted bandits when the bombs mistakenly fell on the worshippers. There was also the air strike in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Rann, a village in Borno State that shares border with Cameroon.

In that unfortunate encounter, 115 civilians were sent to their early graves. This list is endless but highlights growing concerns on the accuracy of military operations and intelligence in the war against insurgency in the country.

Nigerian Air Force has launched investigations on the Jilli killings. But that has been the trend each time such civilian mishaps occur. Their frequency and high civilian causality levels raise questions about accountability in such military operations.

The war against insurgence is admittedly complex especially in situations where the terrorists co-habit with civilians. But that is where their specialised training should count. Nothing should justify the hauling of bombs in a bubbling busy market.

Intelligence should lead the military to the camps of the terrorists, their converging points and when they are about taking off to mount attacks on military formations. Bombs unleashed on them at those points will hit the target and attract less controversy.