Nigerian President calls for investigation after army drone strike accident kills 85

More than 85 people have been killed and dozens wounded by an airstrike on Sunday night from the Nigerian military, which says it accidentally targeted a public gathering in northwest Nigeria.

Villagers in Kaduna State had gathered for an Islamic celebration called Maulud, a Muslim celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, when they were hit by the airstrike operated from an armed drone at around 9pm.

At least 85 people were killed, including children and the elderly, according to emergency services, while a search for more bodies continues. Community leaders told local media that the death toll was over 90 people and eyewitnesses in the rural town of Tudun Biri described horrific scenes of several mutilated bodies.

Nigeria's president Bola Tinubu in a statement on Tuesday, described the attack as "disturbing and painful and pledged a "thorough and full-fledged investigation into the incident".

A spokesman for the army, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, said its forces had located a group of people and determined they were terrorists often referred to as "bandits", at large in north and central Nigeria. Officers "misinterpreted their pattern of activities to be similar to that of the bandits" he said.

Bandits, criminal groups of thousands of militants, have become the primary security threat in much of northern and central Nigeria, effectively occupying rural villages, launching attacks and mass kidnappings.

On Tuesday, the head of the Nigerian army, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, visited the scene and the local hospital where victims were taken to be treated. "It is grave, regrettable. We will do everything possible to prevent such an occurrence from happening again in the conduct of our operations going forward."

Yet calls for accountability are building, following one of the worst such "accidental" attacks against civilians, among a pattern of similar incidents. In January, 39 people were killed by an army airstrike in the central state of Nasarawa. In June, the Nigerian air force admitted responsibility, and has since provided no further details on whether any officers were held accountable.

In 2017, the air force bombed a refugee camp in the northeastern town of Rann in Borno state, the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency. More than 100 people were killed, including aid workers. The air force said the air strike was launched using the wrong coordinates, and it did not reveal whether any officers were held accountable.

The US government has provided Nigeria's armed forces with support and weapons in its fight against insurgent groups, despite a long record of human rights violations and "accidental" attacks against civilians without prosecution. In April last year, the US State Department approved an almost $1billion weapons sale to Nigeria.

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